Empty land easy target for thieves hoping to make big bucks

We have a Call for Action alert about thieves targeting your empty lot. Postal Inspectors say they uncovered a scam where someone stole land and pocketed millions.

It seems like it would be impossible to take over your property without you knowing, but that is exactly what one con-artist did and he made nearly $4-million dollars.

According to Postal Inspectors, the thief would forge deeds and contracts with fake notary signatures. Then he would either sell the property or sell the mineral rights. He often targeted vacant lots, banking on the fact that the property owner was not paying attention. Inspector say the man filed nearly 500 documents on 152 properties.

“He would file deed after deed on the property using fraudulent notary stamps that he had made up. He would then often take out the mineral rights, and separate that from the actual property. In many cases, those properties would be sold to different people even though he never even owned them,” explained Amanda McMurrey a U.S. Postal Inspector.

One way to avoid something like that happening to you is to be on the lookout for your tax appraisal notice every year. If you don’t get it, you know something is wrong.

You can check out your property at the tax collector’s website by clicking here. If you want to check out the ownership record of any parcel of land in the state, you can check out your county’s Property Appraiser’s site.