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Why protect your home

The DuPage County Recorder writes that for most people, a home or property is the largest investment they will ever make. The record of that investment is public. This page explains three patterns that show up in official warnings and court cases, and what an alert can and cannot do.

What the FBI’s numbers actually count

In its 2025 Internet Crime Report, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) lists 12,368 real-estate complaints and $275,110,419 in reported losses for 2025. The report defines “Real Estate Fraud” as “Loss of funds from a real estate investment or fraud involving rental or timeshare property.” That is not a count of forged deeds alone.

The FBI’s Boston office has warned about quitclaim-deed fraud and said IC3 “does not have specific statistics solely for quit claim deed fraud,” though those schemes fall in the real-estate category. Boston gave this broader total: nationwide, from 2019 through 2023, 58,141 victims reported $1.3 billion in losses relating to real estate fraud.

1. Seller impersonation and a forged deed

Diagram: a person pretends to be the owner, a forged deed is recorded, and the land is sold or borrowed against.1. Pretend to be the owner2. Record a forged deed3. Sell it, or borrow on it

On June 16, 2026, IC3 published a public service announcement about criminals who impersonate owners of vacant parcels and try to sell the land. The warning describes fake driver’s licenses or passports, email accounts, and internet phone numbers, then a push to list and sell. In one instance, IC3 said a fictitious deed was used to make the sale look real.

FBI Boston describes the same idea on occupied and vacant property: forged documents record a phony transfer, and the criminal may sell the land, take out a mortgage, or rent it. The real owner is left to go to court. Boston also says vacant parcels and properties without a mortgage are searched for in the public record, and that elderly owners are sometimes targeted by relatives or close associates.

2. A fraudulent lien, and the pressure to pay for a release

Diagram: a bogus lien is recorded, clouds the title, and blocks a sale or refinance until it is cleared.Your titleBogus lienon the recordA buyer or lender may stop until the cloud is cleared.

Illinois recorders keep an open file. On February 10, 2025, DuPage County Recorder Elizabeth Chaplin wrote that no authorization is needed to file against a property, and that scammers can mail in fraudulent land transfers that the office must record if they meet the filing rules. Her notice names “fake liens or forged deed transfers” as the documents a free alert is meant to surface.

The Cook County Clerk’s Property Fraud Unit tells owners what that filing does next: once it is recorded, the owner has to petition a court, at the owner’s expense, for an order removing it. “Selling the home or trying to obtain a mortgage or a refinancing can be impossible until the fraud issue is resolved.” That jam is what lawyers call a cloud on title.

The payment demand is documented in a federal charging document. On March 9, 2018, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced an indictment alleging that defendants recorded fraudulent deeds and then demanded money from homeowners, including “extortionate settlement demands,” because defending a civil case could cost more than paying. Those are allegations in an indictment, not a finding quoted here as a conviction.

3. What monitoring does

Diagram: a new recording is filed, monitoring notices it, and you can call the county, a lawyer, and the police.New filingWe alert youCountyLawyerPolice / IC3

A monitor watches new recordings against the property and the owner’s name and sends a notice. Cook County’s free Property Fraud Alert calls or emails when a document is recorded against the property. DuPage’s free program alerts you when a document is recorded on the PIN, and the recorder asks you to call (630) 407-5400 if you did not authorize it. TitleXSI does the same kind of watch, then a person explains the document in a report. The notice comes after the filing. It does not prevent the filing, it does not insure the title, and it does not pay a claim.

The point of an early notice is time. Cook County says a sale or refinance can be stuck until a court clears the record. An alert is a chance to start that process when the document is recorded, rather than when a buyer’s lender finds it.

Cases, in one sentence each

  • Federal charges described men impersonating out-of-state owners of vacant land, including a Concord, Massachusetts lot sold for about $525,000 while a house was being built on it.

    Boston.com · July 24, 2026

  • A jury found Jeffrey M. Young-Bey guilty of using a fake notary stamp and forged deeds to take residential property, including a home owned free and clear by an elderly homeowner, and then borrowing against it.

    U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia · February 12, 2024

  • An indictment alleged that defendants recorded fraudulent deeds and then demanded money from homeowners, including what prosecutors called extortionate settlement demands, because fighting the filings in court could cost more than paying.

    U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California · March 9, 2018

If this happens to you

  1. Contact the recorder or clerk. In Cook County, the Property Fraud Unit is at [email protected]. In DuPage County, the recorder’s line for an alert you did not expect is (630) 407-5400.
  2. File a police report with the local department.
  3. Talk to a real estate attorney about clearing the record. The Cook County Clerk says removal is a court process and the owner pays for it.
  4. Report the scheme to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. IC3’s vacant-parcel warning asks for emails, phone numbers, and the bank account that received the money, if you have them.

Sources

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