Ellis County Clerk's Office offers free property fraud alert service
(Note: The following is a personal opinion column by Jo Ann Livingston/In The Know Ellis)
Have you signed up for the property fraud alert service that’s offered free of charge by the Ellis County Clerk’s Office? It only takes a few moments, and it does work as a notification system. How do I know? I recently received such an alert, which was delivered to me via email.
I had signed up for alerts back in 2020, and not long after, the clerk’s office set up its program with the service, Property Fraud Alert. In 2021, I received my first alert, but was quickly able to determine from the email itself that it didn’t involve me or my property, so no worries and no need for any further action.
I’d actually forgotten about the service until I received another email from Property Fraud Alert a few days ago. This time, I wasn't able to make an immediate determination just from the email's information, so I went online through the clerk’s office’s records search using the “Guest Login” and looked up the document number the alert had identified as something I should review. Fortunately, and again, the matter turned out not to involve me or my property. Still, it was nice to know there’s an “extra set of eyes” out there on my behalf.
The email I received provided a link to the Property Fraud Alert website and a 1-800-number, but I try to be extra cautious about email links, etc., which is why I looked on the county clerk’s records search website first. After that, I did go on and visit the email’s link to see how that route would have gone. Turns out, the link was personalized to my “case” and on the service’s website. There, the information in the email was repeated, with the webpage providing detailed guidance on how to proceed in checking things out.
Below, I’ve copied/pasted the email I received. The brackets you see are where I removed personal and identifying information:
Document Alert
Dear [name]:
A document has recently been recorded that matches the monitor criteria that you requested, [name]
Location: Ellis County, Texas
Document Number: [number]
Document Type: [type of document]
Recorded Date: [date]
Matched Party Name: [name]
For more details, please visit [link to the Property Fraud Alert website and your individual case information and case ID number], or call 1-800-728-3858 for information. Please note that our representatives only speak English. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. If you require assistance in another language, we recommend seeking the services of a family member, friend or a translation resource.
If you feel that you have received this message in error, or you wish to modify or cancel your monitoring, please contact Property Fraud Alert Customer Service at 1-800-728-3858.
You can sign up for this free service by visiting the county clerk’s website here.
Written by Jo Ann Livingston/In The Know Ellis.
