HOUSTON – There’s a way for criminals to steal your home right out from underneath you without you even doing anything wrong. And the worst part is - you might not even know for months.
It’s commonly called home title theft.
To explain what this is we tap on the shoulder of ex-con man Matthew Cox.
“Home title theft is removing someone’s title out of their name or taking possession of their property,” Cox told KPRC 2’s Gage Goulding. “You actually take the title out of the true owner’s name and place it into the name of someone else.”
This is not a new crime by any stretch of the imagination.
Actually, right here at home several Harris County residents learned last month that their property deeds were transferred to a woman named in a worldwide surrogacy scandal.
Matthew Cox is known around the world as a con man who swindled dozens of families out of their homes without them even knowing.
NBC’s ‘Dateline’ program even featured a one-hour special on Cox after he was arrested in 2006 by the U.S. Secret Service in Nashville. His accomplice was also arrested in Houston.
He forged fake titles, bank notes, notary marks and more to steal roughly $55 million. Of that, $15 million was stolen specifically by stealing home titles.
Cox was so successful at the crime because it was so easy for him. The document to change the title of a home is just four pages long.
In minutes, Cox or other criminals could file paperwork to take your name off of your home’s title and put someone else’s name on the paperwork.
“Typically either a stolen identity or someone that you have control over someone that’s maybe a part of the scam,” he said.
Most of this could be done online with little to no verification or oversight, Cox explains.
“I used to sign cartoon characters names to it,” he said. “I would sign. C Montgomery Burns, the aging tycoon on The Simpsons.”
So, how does this make crooks money? Well, it doesn’t.
But once they own your home on paper, the real damage begins.
“I’d be able to use that property as collateral and I’d be able to borrow against it. And you would have no idea until till eventually I took out the mortgages, stop making the payments and then they would, you know, the the bank would start to foreclose on you,” Cox said.
Each and every time Cox would pull this scam, he could take out loans totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars against each property. On several occasions, he admits he received a million dollars on a single property.
At this point you’re probably wondering: How do I prevent this from happening to me?
Unfortunately, there are no easy answers because there’s no stopping someone from forging your title.
“It’s a nightmare. It’s a legal nightmare. The emotional nightmare. It’s a financial nightmare,” said Art Pfizenmayer of Home Title Lock, a company that helps monitor property deeds.
The best way to avoid that nightmare is to watch your home’s title like a hawk.
“The titles are actually in a national database,” Pfizenmayer explains. “We have access through our proprietary software to watch that title to our subscribers 24/7.”
You don’t need a company to do this for you. You’re able to go check on your title periodically with the county clerk.
However, the sooner you know something’s going on with your title, the better of a shot you can put a stop to if before it’s too late.
“That alert is the first step toward a disaster. If you don’t get on top of it and start addressing it right away,” Pfizenmayer told KPRC 2.
There are many more crooks out there following in the same footprints Matthew Cox once walked.
He ended up serving 13 years and is still paying $6 million in restitution.
However, not every victim of home title theft will get their house or their money back.
“I’m not a do-gooder,” Cox said. “I need to make a living. And I think that notifying people of this is huge.”
