11 tips to prevent home title theft
Home title theft is a serious crime that involves stealing someone’s identity and transferring the ownership of their property to the thief’s name to steal money or property. Since the thief needs to pass off the stolen property as their own, identity theft plays a significant role in home title theft. Thus, it involves the misuse of one’s personal information. Here are some tips one should consider to prevent home title theft:
1. Delete emails containing personal information
Although one may have sent emails containing sensitive information to trusted sources, it is possible for thieves to retrieve such information through mail theft. Personal information like home address and contact details can be used to commit home title thefts. Therefore, it is important to delete emails containing sensitive or personal information immediately after they are shared or received.
2. Be careful with personal documents
Loss of personal identification or address-proof documents can increase the risk of home title theft. Therefore, it’s crucial to handle these documents with care and avoid carrying them around unnecessarily. One should also avoid taking too many printouts of these documents and instead save their soft copies on one’s phone or other electronic devices and password-protect the apps in which they are saved.
3. Purchase home title theft insurance
Home title theft insurance provides financial reimbursement in the event of home title theft and can be purchased when one closes on a home agreement. Buying home title theft insurance is an effective way of mitigating the risks involved in this heinous crime.
4. Check credit card statements and scores frequently
Homeowners should browse their credit reports and statements regularly to promptly detect any fraudulent activity and report it to the police to prevent home title theft. Today, certain companies offer monitoring services to detect and prevent such crimes.
5. Be aware of common fraudulent activities
Homeowners need to be aware of fraudulent activities like phishing, hacking, and data breaches. Such awareness can help one instantly detect these crimes and take immediate action to prevent them from escalating.
6. Create strong Wi-Fi, email, and social media passwords
A strong Wi-Fi password is essential to prevent strangers from using one’s Wi-Fi network and accessing personal information saved on one’s devices. One’s email and social media platforms can also provide home title thieves with essential personal information. Hence, one should create strong passwords for their Wi-Fi networks and email and social media accounts and avoid writing or saving them in easily accessible books or devices. An alphanumeric password with a blend of uppercase and lowercase letters and at least one symbol or character (such as “@” or “$”) is typically considered strong.
7. Know how to report home title theft
Knowing how to report home title theft immediately can help prevent further damage and instigate timely action against the culprit. Typically, homeowners can report home title theft by contacting one’s mortgage lender and submitting a claim on the FTC website. Moreover, one of the three credit bureaus should also be contacted promptly to investigate the crime.
8. Avoid sharing personal information
It may be tempting to share certain personal details with an acquaintance, a new neighbor, or a new friend. However, it is important to wait for a considerably long time before sharing such personal details, ensuring that the other person can be trusted thoroughly.
9. Change passwords often
It is a good practice to frequently change passwords to one’s email, social media, and bank accounts. By doing so, one can limit the amount of time home title thieves spend on one’s account in case they manage to hack it; therefore, it is an effective way to control the repercussions of hacking and prevent home title thefts on time.
10. Maintain private profiles on social media
A public profile means that one’s personal information is easily accessible to everyone, which increases one’s risk of falling prey to identity and home title theft. Hence, one should maintain private profiles on social media.
11. Avoid responding to requests from strangers on social media
One of the most common fraudulent activities online is the acquisition of personal information by befriending innocent persons online. Home title thieves typically send connection requests on the pretext of getting to know their potential victims and extracting such information upon winning their trust. Thus, it is important to accept connection requests only from known persons and avoid responding to messages or requests from strangers.
