According to the FBI, property and mortgage fraud is the fastest growing white-collar crime.  The Tarrant County Clerk's Office now offers a free on-line automated service in which Tarrant County property owners (residential and business) can sign up to have their name monitored for possible fraudulent activity.

A common property fraud scenario involves falsifying documents in order to obtain a fraudulent mortgage in someone else's name.  If a document meets certain legal requirements, the Clerk's Office must accept, file and record the document.  Once this step is complete, the individual can use your home as collateral on a mortgage or even attempt to sell your home to an unsuspecting buyer.

It takes less than 60 seconds to sign up, and participants will be notified only when the exact name they have provided is listed as a "Granter" or "Grantee" on any of 90 different document types recorded in the Clerk's Office.  The alert system is customizable in that alerts can be generated by e-mail or telephone call.  Tarrant is the first county in Texas to offer the Property Fraud Alert service to its property owners.  Click here to learn more about this service and to sign up.