During her 19 years as Saline County’s circuit clerk and deputy clerk, Myka Sample watched as the number of real estate fraudsters around the nation grew and became more brazen. She remembers lying in bed mulling over what could be done to help property owners head off trouble.
“There’s no way as a recorder to know if it’s a fraudulent deed or if it’s legitimate,” said Sample, who has served as Saline County circuit clerk since 2014. “We don’t know if the signature is genuine. We’re relying on the notary to authenticate the signature, and even that can be forged.”
Saline County is among a growing list of counties in Arkansas and across the U.S. that offer a property fraud alert service to property owners. Sample said her office began providing the service back in 2015.
“We’ve had it that long,” she said. “We probably have over 5,000 property owners who have signed up now. It’s a free service to the citizens of Saline County.”
The property fraud alert capabilities are built into her office’s land records management software, provided by Fidlar Technologies of Davenport, Iowa.
The service notifies property owners by email, text message or a phone call whenever a document is recorded with their name on it in the participating county land records office. In Arkansas, that’s the circuit clerk’s office.
At last count, nearly half of the state’s 75 counties offered the alert service through the circuit clerk’s office via Fidlar software. Some county offices have opted to add the service as a stand-alone expansion to their existing records management system.
“There are a lot of people using it,” said Alex Riggen, president of Fidlar Technologies. “We just reached a million people who are subscribed to our alert services across our network.
“When we first launched, it was an uphill battle. The thought was a county can offer the service for free to all their constituents, kind of like credit card fraud alert services. Sixteen years later, it’s more valuable than we could’ve probably imagined.”
The company provides software services in nearly 400 counties in 19 states, with a focus on managing public records.
“Our main product is land record services,” Riggen said. “We’ve always been a technology company that’s provided software services for circuit clerks in Arkansas.
“If you get an alert and something is wrong, that gives you a real quick chance to head off problems caused by a fraudulent deed. The longer it sits out there is more time that a bad guy can do something with your property.”
The alert service doesn’t prevent fraud from occurring, but it can be an early warning system to help property owners take action sooner when a fraudulent deed, lien or mortgage is filed on their land.
“We know it’s going to happen,” Sample said of real the fraud attempts. “It’s been happening. It’s one of the fastest growing white-collar crimes going on across the nation.
“Just because you’re in a small county doesn’t mean it can’t happen there.
“We’re just trying to be proactive to give our citizens this service. It’s not if it’s going to happen. It’s probably when it happens.”
Tandem Scams
Mike Masters still isn’t sure what the end-game grift was concerning two bogus sales contracts on his Benton home.
But his residence in the River Oaks Pointe neighborhood was the object of some recent monkey business.
“Within a month, I’ve had two fraudulent attempts,” said Masters, who was marketing his house for sale.
The Aug. 1 real estate purchase agreement bore his purported electronic signature in a sham deal for $745,000 with $95,000 earnest money. The alleged would-be buyer: a man in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
The paper trail included counterfeit emails attributed to Masters discussing the pending transaction with the Green Forest office of Town & Country Abstract & Title.
Masters was astounded that his name and home were in play as part of somebody’s flimflam.
“The title company called me because they suspected something might be amiss,” he said. “It was kind of shocking, honestly. I was angry and mad.”
It’s unclear if the swindle attempt could have culminated in a false deed transferring ownership.
“I do have a mortgage on my house, so I don’t know how he was going to get around that,” Masters said. “The title company wondered if he was trying to scam someone out of the $95,000 down payment.”
The second illicit transaction attempt, in mid-August through the Benton office of Waco Title, didn’t go very far either.
“Both title companies were savvy enough that they realized it might not be a legitimate deal,” said Masters, who had listed his home for sale by owner through Zillow for about a month.
“I think that’s where they picked up on my contact information because it was on Zillow. By the way, I have sold my house and have a contract, a legitimate one now.
Sign up for Daily E-news
