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Don’t Be A Victim of Property Fraud

Don’t Be A Victim of Property Fraud

By: Amy S. Thibaut, Esq.

Property fraud is becoming one of the prevalent white-collar crimes in the United States.  Property fraud may occur when someone else records a fraudulent deed, mortgage or other document in the public records, in which it appears that ownership or other rights to the property have transferred to a third party who has no legitimate legal rights to said property.  Though property fraud can create serious problems for property owners, this issue often goes undetected.

The Lee County Clerk of Courts offers the Property Fraud Alert Service, as do certain other Florida counties, which notifies those enrolled whenever a deed, mortgage or other land record with their registered name has been recorded into the Official Records for the county in which the property is located.  In Lee County, notifications are provided within 24 hours of the document being recorded.  While this does not prevent property and mortgage fraud altogether, it does provide property owners with notice so that the fraud does not go undetected.  Links to the Property Fraud Service Alert registration for various counties in Florida are below:

Lee County:

https://or.leeclerk.org/LandMarkWeb/FraudAlert

Collier County:

https://app.collierclerk.com/record-search/Official-Land-Records-Risk-Alert#:~:text

Charlotte County:

https://or.co.charlotte.fl.us/Recording/FraudAlert

Orange County:

https://www.propertyfraudalert.com/Phoenix/PFASignUp.WebSite/FLOrange/

Hillsborough County:

https://www.propertyfraudalert.com/Phoenix/PFASignUp.WebSite/FLHillsborough

Manatee County:

https://www.manateeclerk.com/online-services/property-fraud-alerts/

Sarasota County:

https://secure.sarasotaclerk.com/ORFraudAlerts.aspx

Martin County:

https://martincountyrealtors.org/2021/06/28/sign-up-for-free-property-fraud-alerts/

Broward County:

https://web.bcpa.net/owneralert

Palm Beach County:

https://www.propertyfraudalert.com/Phoenix/PFASignUp.WebSite/FLPalmbeach/

If you believe that you may be the victim of property fraud, please call our office at (239) 334-2195 and one of our real estate or land use attorneys would be happy to work with you to preserve your legitimate property rights against those seeking to unlawfully deprive you thereof.