WatchDog™ prevents title theft

Home title thieves want to commit their crime, launder the money they stole, and cover their tracks before anybody discovers what has happened, and they almost always scope out their target homes before they make their move. We publish a list of our protected homes on our website because we make it as easy as possible for home title thieves to check whether one of their targeted homes is protected by WatchDog™. The protection provided by WatchDog™ makes it very unlikely that a title thief can complete their crime without being detected, and for this reason, they will avoid our customers’ homes.

WatchDog™ constantly monitors your home title

WatchDog™ accesses comprehensive property data covering 99.9% of the homes in the Utah counties listed. We monitor our customers’ title records for any changes to ownership, liens and judgments, bankruptcies, foreclosure activity, property tax delinquencies and more. As soon as any of these items appear in the title records of one of the properties we monitor, we notify our customer.

What Is Home Title Theft?

WatchDog™ provides Authoritative Guidance If a customer receives an alert about a change to their title records,WatchDog™ immediately instructs them about the steps they must take. If the customer knows about and approves of the change, no action is necessary. However, if the customer does not know about the change in ownership, new lien or foreclosure activity, then the customer must take action.

Home Equity

The more equity that there is in a home, the more appealing it is to a home title thief because the scam involves fewer steps. Nonetheless, low home equity does not stop the most clever con artists. In one case a thief used fake foreclosures to make it appear that there was 100% equity in a home, and who then proceeded to use additional documents to steal all of the nonexistent equity.

Age of the Homeowner

Older homeowners are more likely to have paid off their mortgages and to have 100% home equity, which looks like a pot of gold to a con artist. Further, as we all get older, we become less and less able to manage our affairs as we did when we are younger, which means we are less likely to notice the activity of a home title thief before it is too late. Lastly, many elderly homeowners are lonely, and when the con artist starts up a conversation with them, the homeowner is happy to speak with them. The fraudster then seizes that opportunity to gain their trust, which is a necessary element of any con game.

Vacancy

Con artists don’t want to be discovered during the commission of their crime. A vacant house – such as a second home or vacation home – is a prime target because nobody is paying attention. In many circumstances, the homeowner only picks up the mail periodically, which enables to con artist to steal any mail that might notify the homeowner of the fraudulent activities.