What is deed theft? Expert breaks it down

Added: 2026-04-30

[00:00:00]Initial reports came out that this was connected to deed theft. It turned out to not be the case, but just a very complicated family situation going on regarding ownership of the house.

[00:00:10]Nonetheless, it brought about the conversation of deed theft because it's become such a situation that Mayor Mamdani actually announced the creation of an office that will deal directly with these types of issues. So, one of the big things that came up exactly is what is deed theft? You know, how is this a conversation? How is this happening? And as best as I can tell you, it is when someone takes someone's home through trickery, deception, uh usually involves a title tends to happen more with older uh Americans, older citizens. But joining us now is Haywood Talk of CEO of the government division at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, and he actually advises over 9,000 government agencies. And Haywood, thank you so much for being with us this afternoon. The first question that we want to ask is just explain it. What exactly is deed theft?

[00:01:03]Well, I I don't want to give too much information to enable the criminals to do it, but suffice to say it it's been going on not just in New York, not just um on the East Coast, but all across the country for the past decade. And it's a very simple fraud that is done primarily by transnational criminal groups.

[00:01:28]That what they do is they go on to your county webpage, they look up your title.

[00:01:34]It has nothing to do with your age, your race, your ethnicity. What it has to do with simply is if you paid off your home.

[00:01:45]They see that you paid off your home on the county webpage, they get a copy of the title, and then they go to the bank, and then what they're able to do is pretend that they are the owner. So, it for the people that it happens to, it is traumatic at scale.

[00:02:06]Uh imagine one day getting a notice in your mailbox that your paid off home now has a mortgage on it, that you're having people show up at your house trying to take it.

[00:02:17]Um so, it has a huge human toll. Now, it is absolutely easy to stop, and it's free to stop. And I'm going to give your viewers four simple tips that will help them not only with title theft, but any other type of financial fraud that is going on. So, the first thing is the United States Postal Service has a thing called informed delivery.

[00:02:43]Informed delivery allows you to put um uh see your mail as it comes in.

[00:02:51]And so, you sign up for this usps.com, it's free, and that way you can see your mail coming in before the actual criminals do. So, please sign up for that.

[00:03:02]Second, everyone should freeze their credit. That is absolutely critical. You go to TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax, click on the button, turn it red, and then if you need to get a loan or something, just turn it green. Do not leave your credit open anymore. That fits into some of the title theft that's going on across the country.

[00:03:24]Third thing, put an alert on all your accounts, uh financial accounts, and get a text message.

[00:03:30]All right, that's all you have to do. Um that way if money's coming out that you're not aware of, you can stop it.

[00:03:36]And then finally, as I mentioned, go to your local county webpage, um whatever county you live in in New York City or um out on uh Long Island, and just put an alert. So, if anyone touches that title, you're made aware immediately. If you do those four things, sir, then guess what? You will not have a problem with title theft. If you do, the first person to call is law enforcement, and the second person to call is your bank.

[00:04:08]Let me ask you, Haywood, a lot to unpack here. You said they pretend that they are the owner, meaning going into the bank saying, "Hi, I'm Antoine Lewis." I want to talk about that. Explain how they are how they are doing this. You said they're pretending that they're the owner.

[00:04:24]Yeah, so this is a government problem, antiquated systems, antiquated processes. They just go on to the county webpage, and they scroll through until they find properties that are fully paid off. There There's no real reason to ever have an interaction with a human.

[00:04:43]So, once they get the fact that your home is paid off, and they pull the title off the county webpage, and then what they're able to do is then go to a bank, usually an online bank, or they do it um virtually, and uh pretend that you're you, and they'll go ahead and they'll either sell the home or they'll go ahead and try to get a um uh uh an equity home equity line out on the house. You don't find out until the bank starts saying, "What's going on? You haven't paid back your equity line." And you're just really confused. So, it The fact of the matter is this happens all Yep. all across the country because those webpages are totally open, and what the governments need to do at this point is they need to put an alert that is driven right back to the owner of that title so that they know their deed has been touched by somebody that may may not um have their best interests in mind.

[00:05:51]Really quick example, sometimes you're having some contract worked on, and the contractor is going to put notice that they're doing work on your house and impact your deed. That's fine, too.

[00:06:03]Let me back up. Okay, let me ask you this. Um how is this how are they able to do this? I I get you're saying that this is online, and but at some point, do you not have to show up in person to to No.

[00:06:18]Okay.

[00:06:19]>> Criminals that do this, they don't want to show up in person cuz they could get caught. So, you just do it online.

[00:06:26]There's plenty of online banks, there's plenty of online companies, and they're just processing paper.

[00:06:33]Right? So, when you think about like the identity verification process, so if I'm going to steal your title to your home, um first of all, you're a very public figure. I know exactly what you look like. I'm going to create a fake driver's license. I'm going to have your title, and I'm going to go ahead and go through the online process to put a equity a home equity line on your house, and then I'm going to start writing checks and having a party, and you're the one that's going to be paying for it. You just don't realize it yet.

[00:07:04]Haywood, can you speak to what defense what what can the homeowners do? You told us these four steps, but legally, how do have you ever advised or been in a situation where you actually observed the legal process of someone trying to get back their home? Can you speak to that?

[00:07:20]Yeah, the reason I know so much about it is it happened to my elderly mother, and I was able to circumvent it very very quickly. Um because if it didn't happen, someone was literally going to take out a home equity line on our house and start playing with her most important asset.

[00:07:42]So, viscerally, I I cannot emphasize enough to anyone and everyone that's listening to your show, go to the county webpage in New York, wherever you live, go on, find your title. Every county has it. Just put an alert on both via a text message and an email. Right? The The problem with this fraud is it's so easy to do, and the amount of money involved is massive. Most of the people doing the fraud, they don't live in New York.

[00:08:20]They don't live in the United States.

[00:08:22]They live overseas. And then you trying to get your money back is going to be one of the most harrowing, frightening, anxiety-driven experiences you ever have. Imagine you're an elderly woman like my mom, and you're in your mid-80s, and someone stole your house.

[00:08:44]You're not capable of fighting these criminals. So, when I when I heard the story initially, we were and it came to my attention, it like it it the only criteria is you own your house.

[00:08:59]That That's the criteria.

[00:09:01]And um I went on to the city of the county of New York, where the city is, and it's like every other webpage. You can put an alert on it, and all the information for the title thieves is right there.

[00:09:14]Haywood, we just can't thank you enough for sharing what you have shared with us. Haywood Talk of CEO of the government division of LexisNexis. So much important information that we will make sure that our viewers absolutely get it. Thank you for being in New York.

[00:09:28]We know that you're in Times Square.

[00:09:29]Thank you so much for making yourself available to us with all of this information.