MONTICELLO – If you think your home cannot be stolen from you, think again.
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center recorded close to 12,000 victims of real estate and rental fraud with losses of $350 million.
Home title theft is when someone uses a homeowner’s personal information to forge a deed and steal their home.
Sullivan County Clerk Russell Reeves said his office has safeguards in place to prevent that.
“For several years now what we do is when we have a transfer of a deed or there is a mortgage against a deed, all people on record on that deed are sent a letter from my office saying that your property is being transferred or that something is happening to that piece of property,” he said.
That saved the ex-wife of Thomas Hyde of Wurtsboro from losing her home to Hyde who was ultimately arrested for allegedly forging documents to steal the deed to her home.
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