Secure Your Property with Title Guard
Experience peace of mind with Title Guard, LLC. Our innovative "Do Not Sell" list proactively protects your property from unauthorized transactions, ensuring your real estate remains secure. Join us today and safeguard your most valuable asset.
Meet Title Guard
The purpose of Title Guard is to keep a secure database of property owners, including their contact information, who are not wanting to sell their property at this time. A “Do Not Sell List” where the property information (but not the contact information) is shared on a weekly basis with the real estate industry. This is a first-of-its-kind real estate fraud prevention service designed to notify property owners of a “potential” fraud transaction before it actually occurs. This gives YOU, the property owners, control over the protection of the Title to Your property.
There are plenty of companies and county government departments that can notify you AFTER a deed has been recorded transferring your property to someone else, but by that time it's too late. We work for you to PREVENT that potential transfer from ever gaining momentum.
Protecting Property Ownership
Learn how our "Do Not Sell" list prevents real estate fraud by alerting you to unauthorized transactions, protecting your property rights proactively. Join now and stay secure.
The Problem
It is commonly advised that you continually check county websites for activity on your property, or engage a third party that provides that service, but that only tells you that something has already occurred. What occurred is that an unsuspecting buyer of your property has now transferred funds to a fraudster, and as the owner of a title company I can tell you that once that deed is recorded, the funds are disbursed within minutes, and transferred out of the U.S. within a few hours. Watching public records only tells you that the fraudster has now transferred title. The unsuspecting buyer is not going to be happy to say the least and will likely put up a fight to keep from losing the property they think they have now purchased. There will be a mess to clean up at best. At worst, you will be embroiled in litigation to get your property back and there is no guarantee that you will.
Real Estate Fraud has become easier to commit. Covid created a need for people to be able to execute documents remotely, which opened a hole from fraudsters to jump in. Fake identification and video conferencing, along with the lack of a database containing legitimate contact information property owners (which could be used to verify the desire to sell by the actual property owner), has opened the door and fraudsters have bulldozed right through. Here is a video describing how easy it is from a former thief:
The U.S. States Secret Service has observed a sharp increase in reports of real estate fraud associated with vacant land and unencumbered property. Criminals are posing as real property owners and through a series of impersonations are negotiating the sale of properties which are vacant or lien free.
"The fraud is often discovered when recording the transfer of property documents with the relevant county. This scheme has particdivarly affected elderly and foreign real property owners, but it is not limited to these groups, because there are not means to automatically notify the legitimate owners. Therefore ,the burden of verification is on the real estate and title companies". See the full memo here:
Real Estate Scams - Vacant Properties (certifid.com)
The Secret Service issued further warnings in this video. United States Secret Service on Seller Impersonation Fraud | CertifID on Vimeo
The problem is getting worse and more complicated by the day, as AI technology is making fraudulent transactions look more and more legitimate, and organized crime syndicates are getting involved. Please read this article How Title Agent Fight Crime Without a Badge | CertifID
Fortune also provides this article warning about scammers impersonating sellers. Read at With fewer sellers on the housing market, more scammers are impersonating them
The Solution
Sign up to be included in our secure Do Not Sell list database and let us keep the real estate industry informed that you are not interested in selling your property. You can start the sign up process here:
Sign Up Now
Take control of protecting your property and do not rely solely on the real estate industry to not make a mistake.
Not the Solution
The American Land Title Association (ALTA) has provided a list of 32 precautions and red flags for the real estate industry to consider to verify that the Seller is the legitimate property owner. You can review the list provided by ALTA here.
While performing these tasks can certainly help, fraudulent transactions are still occurring at an increasing rate, and none of these solutions give any control to the legitimate owner. Owners are simply having to put their faith in the real estate industry with no knowledge that their property is being considered for a purchase. None of these recommendations provide a pro-active solution like keeping a list or database of the legitimate property owners for the real estate industry to go to for when a transaction is proposed.
In fact, on page one of their list is the suggestion to utilize property monitoring services provided by the counties, if they offer such a service. But as the Secret Service states above, that only tells you that you are now the victim of fraud, you just know it sooner rather than later. The "deed" is done, and within hours the proceeds have likely been transferred out of the country.
Watching public records only tells you that the fraudster has now transferred title of your property to someone else, and there will be a mess to clean up at best. At worst, you will be embroiled in litigation to get your property back and there is no guarantee that you will.
How We Protect Your Property
Discover how Title Guard, LLC ensures the safety and security of your property with our systematic and proactive steps designed to keep you informed and in control of your real estate assets. Here’s how we work to shield you from potential real estate fraud:
What We Don’t Do
We don’t provide insurance and we cannot provide an ultimate guarantee that your property will not be subject to a fraudulent transaction.
However, If you property is subject to fraud, we will be able to provide your attorney with evidence that many parties, including one that may have inadvertently facilitated the fraud, were frequently notified that you had no intention to sell or refinance the property.
Exploring the Vulnerabilities in Real Estate Security
The real estate sector has struggled to adapt to the complexities of modern fraud prevention. Unlike other financial transactions where assets are protected under custodial care or insurance, real estate transactions lack standardized oversight and protection. This section delves into the critical gaps in the industry that make real estate a prime target for fraud:
When you deposit funds in a bank, it goes into a vault of some kind and is protected by $250K in FDIC insurance.
When you buy stock, the brokerage firm you use holds your stock certificates as a “custodian” or “trustee”.
But no one provides any kind of service to protect what could be your most important asset.
County recording departments are reactive, not proactive; they do not verify the integrity of transactions and are often too late to prevent fraud. There are vulnerabilitys and inefficiencys in the current practices, including the easy manipulation of records in counties.
The availability of real estate information online, combined with the widespread sharing of personal data on social media and the dark web, amplifies the risk of fraud, especially in an era where digital interactions dominate due to circumstances like COVID-19.
Advancements in technology, including AI, voice-over software, and deepfakes, present new challenges in securing real estate assets. The current industry practices are outdated, often only notifying property owners after fraud has occurred, which is usually too late to prevent significant losses.
Protect Your Property Now
Former thief describing how he would commit real estate fraud
Get Your Questions Answered
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