Lt. Gov. Driscoll Promotes Free Deed Fraud Alert Program at Southern Essex Registry

Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll visited the Southern Essex Registry of Deeds on Tuesday to sign up for a free alert system designed to help property owners detect potential deed fraud.
The service, called Property Fraud Watch, notifies subscribers if a document containing their name is recorded in the Registry’s land records database. The alert allows property owners to review the filing and take action if something appears suspicious. It’s free for homeowners, businesses and other property owners, and while it’s been available for years it hasn’t been considered a high-profile public service by past registrars. Now it is.
Driscoll enrolled in the program for her family home during the visit at the Registry’s new offices in Beverly. Even with a full hands-on tour of the online service from Southern Essex Register of Deeds Eileen R. Duff, the whole process took Driscoll about five minutes.
That’s longer than normal, according to Duff. The process was designed to take just about one minute to complete.
Driscoll’s appearance was part of a broader effort during Fraud Prevention Month to raise awareness of the free service. The idea is to have trusted public figures demonstrate how quick and easy it is to enroll in the free service. Earlier this month Gloucester Mayor Paul Lundberg and Salisbury Town Administrator Neil Harrington also signed up and filmed public service announcements promoting the program.

A growing crime
Property fraud occurs when criminals file forged documents with a registry of deeds, potentially transferring ownership of property or placing unauthorized liens on a home without the owner’s knowledge.
According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), real estate fraud schemes cost victims $1.3 billion nationwide between 2019 and 2023.
During that same period, 2,301 victims in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island reported losses totaling more than $61.5 million. Massachusetts accounted for the largest share — a whopping $46.3 million lost by 1,576 victims. And that’s for a crime that experts say is widely underreported.
Driscoll, who practiced real estate law in Beverly before serving as Salem’s longtime mayor and later lieutenant governor, said she knows well how easily this type of fraud can happen, and how stubborn it is to be recognized because it’s electronic, and doesn’t require more than one person filing an attachment or move on a deed online with a fake notarized signature.
“If you tried to steal a car, you’d need a seal, a paper (title), a car dealership,” she said. “With this type of crime, a property can be stolen, and you may never know it.”

“Someone is stealing my house!”
Duff said the issue surfaced almost immediately after she took office.
On her second day as Register of Deeds, she happened to answer the phone in the office.
“On the line was a woman from Cape Ann, very upset,” Duff said. “She said, ‘Someone is stealing my house!’”
The caller had discovered her home — which was not for sale — listed on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Someone had tampered with her deed, and it went unnoticed until a friend, a local realtor, saw it and contacted her.
And there have been other cases. Many. Which is why Duff made building awareness of the state’s alert program. By January, 2025, the Beverly office had enrolled more than 2,500 property owners into the system that Driscoll signed up for this week. That was more than were enrolled in every other Registry of Deeds branch in all of Massachusetts—combined.
Subscribers register their name with the system. If a document containing that name is recorded in the Registry’s database, the subscriber receives an alert so the filing can be reviewed.
Registry officials emphasize the system is designed as an early warning tool, not a substitute for legal review of property records.
The Southern Essex Registry of Deeds maintains official land records for communities across southern Essex County and provides public access to those records through its website.