Property and mortgage scams are becoming so common here that the city yesterday began a free program to alert homeowners if anyone tampers with their records — and the first to join the program was Mayor Bloomberg.
“I actually signed up this morning,” said the mayor, who owns an Upper East Side town house recently valued at $16 million.
By calling 311 or logging on to NYC.gov to sign up, homeowners can receive notifications by e-mail, tweet or regular mail if there’s ever a change in their property records.
Officials said New York state ranks third, behind California and Florida, in the number of frauds perpetrated by property thieves. Many victims are elderly or new immigrants unaware they’ve been cheated.
“These crimes are hard to discover and hard to prosecute because in most cases the victims don’t know anything’s happened until it’s far too late,” the mayor said at a press conference at City Hall with DAs Richard Brown of Queens and Dan Donovan of Staten Island.
