01/18/2025
🏡Be aware of real estate fraud
***HEADS UP GUILFORD ***
New year new crimes.
On January 1st, 2025, the Guilford Police Department received a complaint regarding a property title fraud. To date, this is the first complaint of this type we have received in town but are aware that property title fraud is a growing trend across the country.
In this particular incident, a realtor was contacted by a scammer posing as a property owner in town looking to sell land. This land was in close proximity to another home, so the realtor reached out to that neighbor to ask if they were interested in the property. As it turned out, the neighbors were interested in purchasing the land and they worked with attorneys to settle the deal.
Due to the fact that the rightful landowner was residing out of state, business was conducted over the phone. The sale was made and when the new owners contacted another adjoining neighbor, it was discovered that the whole transaction was fraudulent.
Guilford officers and detectives worked quickly with our federal partners to freeze the account the money had been wired to for the land purchase, preventing the criminals from gaining access to the funds. But where there is one, there will be more. Criminals of this type of crime are very savvy and will continue to commit title frauds.
Thankfully, the Town of Guilford has a free program for property owners in Guilford to register for alerts if someone tries to change their property title.
You can find the link on the Town of Guilford Clerk's Office page https://www.guilfordct.gov/town_departments/town_clerk/index.php .
Scroll down the page to "Property Check Powered by Cott", click the "here" link, and it will bring you to this linkhttps://cms5.revize.com/revize/guilfordct/Document_Center/Department/Town%20Clerk/town-clerk-property-check.pdf .
Once there, clink the link to register for free. You will then go to the lists of towns and select Guilford. You will then see three links, click the one below that reads Property Check and click "create notifications."
You will then be prompted to enter property owner names that you wish to be notified of if there is a change of a property title.
This is just an extra layer of protection that can be set to alert you via text and email when the title change is happening at the clerk's office. We suggest property owners register on Property Check as this is an easy and trending crime nationwide.
For more information regarding title or deed theft check out the Experian link below:
https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/what-is-home-title-fraud/
If you feel you have been a victim of identity theft, please report to your local police department and check out
https://www.identitytheft.gov for ways to protect yourself and your family from these types of scams.
NOTE: This case remains active so no further details will be released at this time.
Thank you for sharing and be sure to register your property 🚔
