Property Fraud Alert (PFA) is a FREE notification service that alerts subscribers via email each time a document is recorded with their name on it in Mercer County. For the Property Fraud Alert system to work as intended, and for notification alerts to be sent, the name that is registered for the alert (first, last, and/or business name) must match exactly what appears on the document that comes into our office. You will need to sign up for the alert multiple times for each variation of a name as it could appear on a document. (Example: Robert, Rob, Bob, Robert L., Rob L., or Bob L.). Do not use periods or commas in the names. Multiple names can be linked to the same email address.

It is highly recommended that you enter all the different ways your name may appear on a legal document. For example, with a name such as Joshua, you will want to register under Joshua and again under Josh. Another example would be multiple variations of the same name, such as Brittany/Britany/Britney etc. Multiple names can be linked to the same email.

To illustrate, let’s use the last name “Van Buren” as our example. This name may at times be spelled with a space in it (“Van Buren”) and at other times with no space (“VanBuren”). For cases like this, it is highly recommended that you make two separate entries with both name variations.

The Fraud Alert is based on an exact name match. If you happen to have a suffix with your name, please enter it in the middle name field. If you are also entering in a middle initial or middle name, the suffix will be entered in that same field behind the middle name. Do not use periods or commas in the names.

Business names should be entered exactly as the business name is spelled, “ACME Printing Company” & “ACME Printing CO”, “Smith & Smith”, “XYZ Corporation” & “XYZ Corp”. Our office usually abbreviates when indexing Corporation – Corp, Association – Assoc, Company -Co, & Partnership – Part. Therefore, if your business name could contain variations similar to this, we highly recommend that you make an additional notification entry with that variation.

 The email notification will have a link to view the document that was recorded. If this is a questionable document to you, the first step is to contact the Recorder’s Office at 419-586-4232. Your County Recorder also receives every email that you do through this program and is with you every step of the way.

If you feel that possible fraudulent activity has taken place via the notification:

• Contact any other parties whose names may be on the document.
  Other parties may be aware of the document and may have mutual concern about the document’s potential impact.

• Contact your attorney.
  If you are not sure about the purpose of the referenced document, a private attorney may be able to determine impact and possible action in a timely fashion and minimize the damage and inconvenience of a fraudulent document.

• Contact your lending institution.
  If you believe possible fraudulent activity has taken place, contacting your bank, mortgage company, or lending institution in a timely fashion may help your cause.

You can enter a Trustee under Personal or Business. If entering under Personal, you will want to add Trustee into the middle name field. If entering under Business, you will want to type the name of Trustee with no commas. It is recommended to enter all possible ways to register the name for the system to properly detect.