Public Notice

All properties in Brownsville, Oregon within the boundaries of Washburn St., to Hume St. and Hwy 228 all the way to Worley Ave. are now owned by B. J. Buddy Boy, a 23 lb. Bichon Frise. He has recently completed a review of the properties and his deeds to them as well as supervised several small construction projects and some lawn mowing within this area. He is asking that all squatters within the area fork over a dog treat (A good one, not the ones full of grain and fillers) a month to continue their residence on these properties. Fortunately for you all the documentation is written in dogeeze and a judge will never be able to read it.

Now if that doesn’t shake your shackles, here’s something that will. You could wake up one day not owning the property you paid for or are paying for. That’s right. Your mortgage and the equity you have worked so hard to build could be stolen right from underneath your nose. Just check the Lifelock website and they will tell you that it is a very possible scenario. Your hair will turn grey and fall out reading this. I tell you that it is indeed worrisome. Just listen to some of their commercials on the radio or on the web. You will need an antacid to get through them.

Theft, especially “legal” theft is on the rise in this country. And why shouldn’t it be? It’s a free country so you are free to take what you want, right? But this insurance company will take care of it just like all the other insurance companies will take care of your other worries. You will pay and pay, hoping they will fork over when disaster strikes. But just before a disaster, they might cancel your policy or if they have no choice but to pay out, they might delay payment to get that extra interest on the pay-out money or send in an appraiser who will downgrade whatever is insured so they will pay for a partial replacement but not the whole thing. I discovered this when I had to collect on my flood insurance.

So, how do they steal your home from underneath you? Well, it goes like this: First, they get enough of your information to establish an identity of you that they control and then they go in for the kill. After obtaining the new deed with a new name on it they take out loans or sell the property. Another way is to hack the deeds and other information on your home that are stored online. Also, the Real ID and their electronic funny money could be hacked as well just like they hacked a few million Social Security numbers some time ago. Keep that in mind as they herd us in that direction.

The problem with this scenario is that the thieves have to prove they are you to transfer the title into whatever name they want. There are several checks to keep this kind of theft from happening as explained in a two minute read on the FTC website. Basically, keep an eye on your utility bills and if they stop coming, this could be a sign you and your property are under attack. Check your credit report for new applications for credit you didn’t make or for expenses credited against you that are unfamiliar. Any of these breaches should be immediately addressed.

The FTC also calls out the insurance companies providing this insurance as not only being alarmist, but not able to do what you pay them to do. The problem is that no one knows there is a problem until there is. The crime can’t be stopped before it has been committed. Wow! A government agency finally gets something right. We should celebrate. Looks like I might need to do a rant about insurance companies.

These days, it seems that all of us working people are a target. Someone is waiting to steal the shirt off your back if you are not wary. Stay alert, my friends, and don’t let the thieves get you down.