The Hardin County Clerk’s Office has announced the implementation of Cott Systems’ PropertyCheck, a new software that helps combat property and mortgage fraud through an alert system.
“It costs you nothing to sign up, and if you go to our website you can sign up for PropertyCheck, and you’ll get a notice any time a document is filed in your name,” said Hardin County Clerk Brian D. Smith.
He says implementing the PropertyCheck system was an important goal for his office.
“From the time I was elected, before I was even sworn in, I had a lot of people hitting me up on what they call property fraud, property theft, people filing false documents in their names and whatnot, and a lot of fear,” Smith said. “This actually is a real crime, and it’s a growing crime in other states. We’ve not seen it a lot here, but we want to get in front of it rather than behind it.”
Residents activate a PropertyCheck account, and the software runs in the background on all of the other clerk’s office record management software to identify when a user’s name is used. Residents can opt in to be alerted via email or text when their name shows up.
Smith said registering to protect yourself and your family is an easy process.
“We encourage you to use any variation of your name,” Smith said. “You go on and you create an account. If you’ve ever created a social media account, an Amazon account, this account is easier to create than those, and you can put your name, your spouse’s name, your children’s name all in your account.”
Find more information and a link to register on the Hardin County Clerk’s Office’s website.
