Several years ago, an elderly Lackawanna County woman needed a new roof on her home, so she applied to a local bank for a mortgage to pay for it.<\/p>\n
She was surprised to learn there was already a mortgage on the property, one that she knew nothing about.<\/p>\n
Lackawanna County Recorder of Deeds Evie Rafalko McNulty assisted the woman in contacting appropriate authorities to resolve the issue. But, because it had been years since the fraudulent mortgage had been obtained, the situation was a difficult one.<\/p>\n
Now, McNulty is encouraging homeowners to register for a program which will alert them to any activity involving their real estate before the end of the day.<\/p>\n
Should there be anything suspect on the report, homeowners could contact the District Attorney\u2019s office immediately and the process of rectifying the situation could be started immediately.<\/p>\n
McNulty posted information about the \u201cFree Fraud Notify Service,\u201d this week, after her office received several reports of such suspected activity within the last week.<\/p>\n
In each case, the fraudulent attempt was thwarted by homeowners who were alerted to the potential scams.<\/p>\n
Still, McNulty finds it suspect that there has seemingly been an uptick in the fraudulent attempts during the last two weeks.<\/p>\n
In each case, scammers provided fraudulent identification to real estate agents, indicating they wanted to sell \u201ctheir property.\u201d<\/p>\n
The real estate agents had concerns about the legitimacy of the requests and, through some research, identified them as fraudulent.<\/p>\n
The scammers were attempting to fraudulently \u201csell\u201d extensive acreages in Benton Township, Scott Township and Blakely, according to the LeaAnn Spitz of the Recorder of Deeds Office.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re impersonating people. They\u2019re making fake IDs, they\u2019re saying, \u2018I own this property and I\u2019m looking to sell it,\u2019\u201d Spitz said.<\/p>\n
Because the IDs were transmitted to real estate agents digitally, both the Recorder of Deeds office and the Lackawanna County District Attorney\u2019s office are in possession of the copies of the fake licenses.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very coincidental that over about four days, Wednesday and Thursday of last week and then another one on Monday. People called to alert us of fake IDs and that people were trying to impersonate them,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd, we were like, \u2018What is happening here?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The Recorders of Deeds office offers the free Fraud Notify service, which is available on the county website, where property owners can add names, business names and PIN numbers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll that is needed is an email address,\u201d Spitz said. \u201cIn the event something is recorded, you are notified the same day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Recorded of Deeds office will then assist homeowners in contacting the District Attorney\u2019s office and State Police to assist them in reversing the transactions.<\/p>\n
Homeowners can sign up for the program at https:\/\/www.lackawannacounty.org\/news_detail_T8_R156.php or at the Recorder of Deeds office.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecent reports involve scammers impersonating property owners and attempting to sell properties using fraudulent identification and documents. These incidents are currently under investigation,\u201d District Attorney Brian Gallagher said. \u201cWhile cases have been identified, residents should remain vigilant, as similar attempts may not yet have been detected.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to signing up for the Fraud Notify program, homeowners should also:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Review property records with the Recorder of Deeds Office<\/p>\n
\u2022 Confirm mailing address for tax bills and official notices is accurate<\/p>\n
\u2022 Watch for any unexpected or suspicious activity related to your property<\/p>\n
If anything appears unusual or unauthorized, homeowners are asked to report it immediately to county authorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several years ago, an elderly Lackawanna County woman needed a new roof on her home, so she applied…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[202,201,182,139,28,178,180,179,729],"class_list":["post-184831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}