Lackawanna County recorder of deeds adds anti-fraud protection
Apr. 9—People can sign up for free protection from fraudsters who try to file false documents with the Lackawanna County recorder of deeds office.
The office recently added an electronic fraud notification available on the recorder of deeds' website.
If someone tries to wrongly record a deed or mortgage with your name or the name of a company you own, you'll be emailed a notice that it happened, Recorder of Deeds Evie Rafalko McNulty said.
The county bought the service from Tyler Technologies for $4,000, McNulty said. Recording fees are covering the cost. Tyler is the same company carrying out the county's reassessment.
Emails will only go out if names match exactly the notification that a person signed up for, but a person can sign up for multiple variations, McNulty said. The notification will only go out on documents filed after someone signed up for the service.
"Names are matched ignoring any punctuation, capitalization and spacing," according to a news release on the service. "This may occasionally cause you to receive a notification for a similar name. This is preferred to a missed alert due to differences in the layout of the registered name."
Dauphin County Recorder of Deeds James M. Zugay, president of the Pennsylvania Recorder of Deeds Association, said this type of fraud is rare and the notification doesn't prevent it, but the notice provides a nice backstop. Sometimes, recorders' staffs make mistakes, too, he said.
"It's a nice service to have," Zugay said. "A lot of software companies are starting to offer it."
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