With New York deed theft complaints up 240%, top Capital Region broker Colin McDonald shows Troy and Albany homeowners how to safeguard their property.
ALBANY, NY, UNITED STATES, June 18, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Deed fraud — a quiet crime in which someone forges paperwork to steal the title to a home — is climbing fast across upstate New York, and Colin McDonald of McDonald Real Estate Company is urging Capital Region homeowners to take a few simple steps now to protect what is, for most families, their largest asset.
Complaints to the New York State Attorney General have surged roughly 240% from 2023 to 2025, more than tripling in two years. Recent deed theft cases have already moved through the courts in Albany County, Cohoes, and Schenectady County — proof that this is a local problem, not a big-city one.
Here is how it works. A scammer forges a homeowner’s signature on a deed, or files fraudulent documents that make a property appear paid off, and records them with the county clerk. Clerks record property documents but are not required to verify that each signature or notary stamp is real. In most counties, a deed can be filed or changed without the owner ever being notified — so the theft can sit undetected until someone tries to sell, refinance, or pass the home to their children.
“Most homeowners assume the title to their house is locked in a vault somewhere. It isn’t,” said Colin McDonald, founder of McDonald Real Estate Company. “Anyone can walk into a county clerk’s office and file paper against your home. The good news is that protecting yourself takes about ten minutes and costs nothing.”
Thieves tend to target the homes that are easiest to take quietly: properties where the owner has died and the heirs never formally transferred the title, vacant or non-owner-occupied homes, and elderly owners. Anyone who owns property free and clear is a target, because a home with no mortgage is the easiest to borrow against or sell out from under the real owner.
McDonald stresses that this is not the work of a lone con artist. The volume and sophistication point to organized operations working at large scale, in many cases with connections overseas — potentially even call centers and warehouses whose entire job is to email hundreds or thousands of real estate agents every day, fishing for the one transaction where they can slip a fraudulent deal through.
“People picture some individual scammer, but that’s not what this is,” said McDonald. “This is organized — groups running it like a business, often with an overseas connection, blasting thousands of realtors a day until someone bites. Treating every unsolicited email as legitimate is exactly what they’re counting on.”
McDonald recommends every Capital Region homeowner do three things. First, sign up for your county clerk’s free property alert service. Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Schenectady county clerks now offer programs that email you any time your name or property is used in a new filing — the single best early-warning system available, and it is free. Second, pull your own recorded documents from the county clerk’s office once a year and confirm the deed still shows your name. Third, if you own a vacant home, a rental, or a property you inherited, get the title into your name properly and keep an eye on it; those are the homes thieves go after first.
If you believe a fraudulent document has been filed against your home, contact the New York State Attorney General’s deed theft hotline at 1-800-771-7755 or email deedtheft@ag.ny.gov, and notify your county clerk immediately. Acting quickly is what limits the damage.
McDonald says agents share responsibility for stopping these scams, and his own brokerage has tightened how it verifies sellers. Because the schemes are happening more and more often, his team now insists on a real conversation before taking a listing — a phone call, often a FaceTime, and a face-to-face meeting at the property itself. They confirm the seller actually has access to the home, including keys, and that the person they are dealing with is in fact the owner of record.
“When a listing request comes in by email or text, we don’t just take it at face value anymore — we get on the phone, we FaceTime, and we meet the seller at the property in person,” McDonald said. “We’re not trying to single anyone out. Meeting in person and seeing the home is simply the new norm. It’s how we confirm someone really owns the property and protect everyone at the table from a scam.”
McDonald Real Estate Company is offering Capital Region homeowners a free, no-obligation title check. Colin’s team will help you locate your recorded deed, confirm the ownership on file is correct, and walk you through enrolling in your county’s alert program. Homeowners can call (518) 505-4977 or visit mcdonaldrealestateco.com to set one up.
“You shouldn’t have to be a real estate attorney to keep your own house,” McDonald added. “If I can save one family in Troy or Albany from a year of legal hell, an afternoon of phone calls is worth it.”
A brokerage based in Troy, McDonald Real Estate Company was founded by Colin McDonald, a former Berkshire Hathaway Home Services agent who brokered the highest recorded closings in Albany County in 2019 and 2020. He has closed more than $300 million in career sales across 300-plus transactions and holds 100-plus five-star reviews on Google and Zillow. The company serves Troy, Albany County, and the greater Capital Region.
Colin McDonald
McDonald Real Estate Company
+1 518-505-4977
cmcdonald@mcdonaldrealestateco.com
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