Introduction
Television and online ads that claim to protect homeowners from title theft should not exist. Companies like Home Title Lock market themselves as subscription services that “lock” a homeowner’s title, claiming to provide around-the-clock monitoring and urgent alerts if someone tries to tamper with property records. This article debunks these modern-day purveyors of snake oil and, more importantly, provides practitioners with information about free or low-cost resources available in Colorado should a client inquire.
Understanding Fraudulent Deeds
At the core of the title theft scare is a misunderstanding of what a fraudulent deed can and cannot do. A deed is the name of a legal instrument that is used to convey or sell a home.[1] A fraudulent deed is a deed signed by some third-party stranger that has no legal right to sign such an instrument.[2] That stranger does not acquire any legally defensible interest in the home.[3] Such a deed is void (i.e. not legally effective for any purpose) and the party receiving such title does not replace the party that rightfully owns the property.[4]
Typically, the party that recorded the fraudulent deed will either try to resell the home or place a loan on the home. Neither the sale nor the loan can pass real ownership to any unlucky buyer or an effective lien as to any lender.[5] Even if the new buyer acts in good faith, pays money and has no knowledge of the fraud, the new buyer does not obtain good title to the home.[6] No title company will insure a fraudulent deed.
What Title Lock Services Claim and Cost
Despite the fact that fraudulent deeds are legally void and cannot transfer ownership, companies like Home Title Lock, the largest company operating in this space, exploit fears about this rare form of fraud by selling costly monitoring services as if they could prevent or undo it. Companies in this category market “title lock” services at varying price points, offering subscription-based monitoring and consumer support features that range from basic alerts to purported insurance-like protections. Home Title Lock, the most prominent provider, charges $227.40 annually, which breaks down to $18.95 per month.[7] The plan promises 24/7 home title monitoring, urgent alerts of any changes to title, and access to the company’s “US Based Team of Restoration Experts.”[8]
Why Consumers Complain
While these services are marketed as comprehensive protection, many consumers report that the reality falls far short of the company’s promises. Home Title Lock is not a Better Business Bureau (“BBB”) accredited Business but has received twenty complaints to the BBB in the last three years.[9] Customers consistently report deceptive billing practices, ineffective or unreachable customer support, difficulties with cancellation and refunds, and misleading representations of what the service actually provides.[10] Numerous complaints describe no option to cancel online and multiple customers describe having to resort to cancelling their credit card altogether.[11] Some customers claim the monitoring service failed to notify them of title changes, while others reported receiving no services at all.[12] Other customers claimed that the advertised services are exaggerated and not what was delivered.[13] For example, the company advertises the service as a “lock” on title, but it only monitors changes.[14]
Regulatory Crackdowns on Title Lock Companies
Regulators have taken notice. In January 2023, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton initiated a civil investigation into Home Title Lock, a California company, under Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act.[15] Paxton issued a Civil Investigative Demand, requiring Home Title Lock to produce documents to substantiate its advertising claims, particularly about home title fraud prevalence and supposed FBI endorsements.[16]
In April 2023, City Attorneys in San Francisco and San Diego issued a subpoena to Home Title Lock, seeking information to understand how many California homeowners may have been harmed by the company’s misleading advertisements.[17] San Diego City Attorney Mara W. Elliot said that “Home Title Lock’s Conduct is not just illegal; it is unconscionable and cruel.”[18]
Further, in August 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) issued a Consumer Alert, warning of companies like Home Title Lock and others, blatantly referring to them as scams.[19] The FTC explained that so called “title lock insurance” is “not insurance at all” and that homeowners can check their title for free with the state’s land records office.[20]
Free Tools for Colorado Homeowners
Instead of paying for misleading services, Colorado homeowners can use free resources to monitor property records. In Denver County, property owners can check the status of their property titles online for free through the Clerk and Recorder’s official website.[21] To check, users will first have to create a user account that requires an email address on the City and County of Denver’s Clerk & Recorder’s website.[22] Once their account is set up, users can look up property records by address, parcel identifier, or document number.[23] Next, the system will retrieve related public records, such as deeds, liens, mortgages, or transfers, from a historical database that spans back to 1859 and is updated daily.[24]
Further, Denver County, like many other counties in Colorado,[25] now offers a free property fraud alert service.[26] Denver County’s FraudSleuth allows property owners to set up profiles and receive alerts if a document is recorded against the information included in their profile.[27] There are no fees to use FraudSleuth.[28] The service detects fraudulent activity within the land records managed and maintained by the Denver Office of the Clerk and Recorder’s office. [29]
Affordable Title Protection Options
Beyond government tools, low-cost coverage is often available through existing homeowner insurance policies. Most homeowner insurance companies offer a Cyber Event or Fraud Loss Coverage endorsement.[30] The cost is typically in the range of $25 annually and will cover costs including legal fees up to $25,000.00 to clear title.[31] Homeowners should always confirm that this endorsement is available, what the deductible is, and that it will cover so called title theft which is just another variety of fraud.
Debunking the “Fastest Growing Crime” Claim
Despite the availability of these free and reliable title monitoring resources, many consumers still fall for title lock services because of fear-based advertising. A central tactic of title lock marketing is fearmongering through false crime statistics. Many title lock services prominently claim that home title theft is one of the fastest growing white collar cybercrimes, frequently attributing the statement to the FBI.[32] However, the FBI has no record of calling home title theft one of the fastest growing crimes and has disputed that such a warning was ever issued.[33] In fact, the FBI does not offer any statistics specific to home title theft, instead only “providing data about the general category of ‘real estate/rental’ crime, which includes many forms of property-related fraud.”[34]
Recent Cases
Although unusual, the outcomes of recent prosecuted cases show that title theft schemes end with severe penalties for offenders. On September 19, 2025, two Colorado women were sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to fraud charges after forging a deed to a home, transferring it to themselves, and then selling it for more than $600,000.[35] The victim had neglected the property and was not keeping up with what was going on with it or its records, which allowed the title “to go through kind of free and clean.”[36] Denver Deputy Chief Prosecutor Bob Nitido emphasized the crime’s rarity saying the crime, “required a rare set of circumstances for the defendants to be able to take advantage of this situation.”[37] On September 23, 2025, a Missouri woman was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison after pleading guilty to a charge of mail fraud related to a scheme to auction off Elvis Presley’s Graceland home.[38] The woman forged loan documents claiming Lisa Marie Presley borrowed $3.8 million and pledged Graceland as collateral.[39] She then published a fraudulent foreclosure notice in a Memphis newspaper and threatened to auction Graceland unless Presley’s family paid a $2.85 million settlement.[40] A judge stopped the sale after Presley’s granddaughter, Riley Keough, sued.[41] U.S. Attorney Kevin G. Ritz, who prosecuted the case, stated that “all homeowners deserve to have their property protected from fraud, and the Department of Justice will vigorously prosecute anyone who commits financial crimes or identity theft.”[42] These recent prosecutions highlight that though title theft schemes are exceedingly rare, those who attempt them face substantial criminal penalties.
Conclusion
Nobody can steal a home, and no house is disappearing down the highway on the back of an eighteen-wheeler. The true risk of a fraudulent deed is limited to the legal fees of clearing title, which are typically covered by a standard homeowners policy endorsement. I urge the Colorado Attorney General—like officials in Texas and California—to take action to protect consumers from this kind of skullduggery.
[1] Deed, Corn. Legal Info. Inst., https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/deed (last visited Sept. 23, 2025). See also C.R.S. § 38-30-113 (Colorado’s statutory definition).
[2] See GMAC Mortg. Corp. v. PWI Grp., 155 P.3d 556, 557–58 (Colo. App. 2006) (holding that a deed of trust executed by a party with no ownership interest was a “wild deed” outside the chain of title and therefore a spurious document that was patently invalid).
[3] Id. at 557 (“Colorado law intends to mandate that only the owner of real property can encumber or convey the same.”).
[4] Upson v. Goodland State Bank & Tr. Co., 823 P.2d 704, 705–06 (Colo. 1992).
[5] See Strekal v. Espe, 114 P.3d 67, 73 (Colo. App. 2004) (“[W]hen the initial deed is void, as in the case of a forged deed, title cannot pass to the subsequent purchaser….”).
[6] See Upson, 823 P.2d at 706.
[7] Home Title Lock Coverage Plans, Home Title Lock, https://www.hometitlelock.com/pricing (last visited Aug. 22, 2025).
[8] Id.
[9] Business Profile, Better Bus. Bureau https://www.bbb.org/us/fl/coral-springs/profile/threat-and-fraud-assessment/home-title-lock-0633-92030728/complaints?page=1 (last visited Aug 25, 2025).
[10] Id.
[11] Id.
[12] Id.
[13] Id.
[14] Id.
[15] Paxton Announces Investigation of Home Title Lock for Potentially Misleading Texas Consumers,Tex. Att’y Gen. (Jan. 24, 2023), https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/paxton-announces-investigation-home-title-lock-potentially-misleading-texas-consumers.
[16] Id.
[17] San Francisco and San Diego City Attorneys Subpoena Home Title Lock Over Deceptive Advertising, S.F. City Att’y (Apr. 10, 2023), https://sfcityattorney.org/2023/04/10/san-francisco-and-san-diego-city-attorneys-subpoena-home-title-lock-over-deceptive-advertising/.
[18] Id.
[19] Larissa Bungo, Home Title Lock Insurance? Not a Lock at All, Fed. Trade Comm’n (Aug. 26, 2024), https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2024/08/home-title-lock-insurance-not-lock-all.
[20] Id.
[21] Search for Records, Denv. Gov’t, https://denvergov.org/Government/Agencies-Departments-Offices/Agencies-Departments-Offices-Directory/Denver-Clerk-and-Recorder/find-records (last visited Aug. 22, 2025).
[22] Id.
[23] Id.
[24] Id.
[25] Adams County, Arapahoe County, Boulder County, Broomfield County, Douglas County, Eagle County, El Paso County, Gilpin County, Jefferson County, Kit Carson County, Larimer County, Las Animas County, Mesa County, Pueblo County, Routt County, and Rio Blanco County all offer free fraud notification systems. See County Fraud Detection Services, Land Title Ass’n of Colo. (July 14, 2023), https://ltac.memberclicks.net/assets/docs/July%202023%20County%20Fraud%20Detection%20Services.pdf; Matt Bachus, Title & Recording Fraud & Free Alerts, Tupper Steam (July 24, 2025), https://www.tuppersteam.com/blog/title-recording-fraud-free-alerts.
[26] Sign Up for FraudSleuth!, Denv. Gov’t, https://www.denvergov.org/Government/Agencies-Departments-Offices/Agencies-Departments-Offices-Directory/Denver-Clerk-and-Recorder/find-records/sign-up-for-fraud-sleuth (last visited Aug. 22, 2025).
[27] Id.
[28] Id. (emphasis added).
[29] Id.
[30] Sarah Schlichter, Personal Cyber Insurance: A Complete Guide, Nerd Wallet (Nov. 14, 2023), https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/insurance/personal-cyber-insurance.
[31] Id.
[32] Mike Levine, Prolific Ads Featuring Right-Wing Icons Push Questionable Claims about US ‘Crime Wave’, ABC News (June 14, 2022), https://abcnews.go.com/US/prolific-ads-featuring-wing-icons-push-questionable-claims/story?id=85365286&.
[33] Id. (“[T]he FBI told ABC News it can’t find any evidence that the agency ever described home title theft as one of the fastest-growing crimes.”).
[34] Id.
[35] Jeremy Jojola, 2 Women Head to Prison for Forging Deed, Selling $600,000 House, 9 News (Sept. 22, 2025), https://www.9news.com/article/news/crime/2-women-prison-forging-deed-sell-600000-house/73-08343a77-9998-4044-8d11-93fda110b763.
[36] Id.
[37] Id.
[38] Adrian Sainz, Missouri Woman Gets More Than 4 Years in Prison for Trying to Sell Off Elvis Presley’s Graceland, AP News (Sept. 23, 2025), https://apnews.com/article/graceland-elvis-presley-memphis-fraud-sentence-81885745b4cd10de913b73707f33b3a3.
[39] Id.
[40] Id.
[41] Id.
[42] Woman Charged for Scheme to Defraud Elvis Presley’s Family, U.S. Dep’t of Just. (Feb. 6, 2025), https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/woman-charged-scheme-defraud-elvis-presleys-family#:~:text=%E2%80%9CAs%20a%20Memphian%2C%20I%20know,a%20Florida%20State%20notary%20public.
