The Expert Podcast

Here's another video in our series on vehicle title fraud, and this has to do with properly signing over titles. Look, if you have a vehicle title that needs to be signed by the owner, sometimes it's tempting for a person to say, "Well, I'll just sign their name on the back." In some cases, the signature is not immediately verified. But many times, what will happen is if there's not a supporting notarized bill of sale or notarized transfer form, the DMV will then reach out and contact that owner to ask them, "Did you sign the document?" Even if the new title's already issued, they might do this after the fact. So, you could find out later that your title gets revoked, and you're prosecuted for fraud because the DMV knows that fraud is a growing problem; they don't verify the signature at the time of sale.

What happened in this story was that there was a tree company that had a bunch of trucks, and somebody fraudulently got a duplicate title by forging a document. So, let's say you are a person or company that owns a vehicle, and that vehicle is in your name. You have a title in your name, and somebody forges a signature to get a duplicate title and then transfers it to themselves. Now, they own the vehicle. A lot of times, you may run into some frustration of, "Well, why can't I just get a duplicate? Can I just call up? Can I just fax something over? Can I do it online?" The reason they don't do that is because they want to make sure that the person getting the actual duplicate title is really the person who's the owner. They don't want to just be giving out your titles to anybody, and they do it for protection.

It does make it a little less convenient for you to get a new title for your vehicle, but it does protect you from having problems with the vehicle later. So the next time you're complaining about how hard it is to do vehicle title paperwork and how much the DMV gives you the runaround, don't despair. It's made difficult for a reason. Yeah, they are a little bit bureaucratic, but they're also doing it to protect vehicle owners to make sure that there's not title fraud and that somebody's not losing their vehicle. Look, you wouldn't want it to happen to you. If you had your car in your driveway and one day you come home and find out that the title's not in your name because somebody forged a title, you'd wish for more complex restrictions on title transfers.

So, it does make it a little harder when you have to do it legitimately, but it also protects you from title fraud. Make sure if you are doing anything with a vehicle title, you're getting a new title, or you're getting a title recovery, that whatever is being done is being done properly. If you're not doing it yourself and you're hiring somebody or paying somebody to do title work for you, make sure you totally understand what they're doing. Make sure you check on your own that it's legitimate, it's legal, and it's appropriate for your scenario. Don't take anybody's word for it or a website's word for it that what they're doing is legal. Make sure you double-check it yourself and you match up that what they're doing is correct for your scenario.

So you don't run into a problem later where you have legal problems or your title gets revoked. If you found this video helpful, be sure to click on other videos on our channel to see if there's further information that could give you more insight into resolving your particular situation.