The Wood County clerk’s office has instituted new software to help prevent fraud concerning county deed records.

“I am so excited to finally be able to offer this service to Wood County after a nearly year-long project with the assistance of our Wood County I.T. Dept. and Tyler Technologies personnel,” County Clerk Kelley Price said.

Beginning Sept. 1, citizens will be available to subscribe to the free service and get email alerts should there be any activity cornering their property.

The system will alert property owners when documents are recorded using personal or property information, alerting them to potential cases of land records fraud.

The link to register will be on the county clerk’s page of the county’s website, mywoodcounty.com.

Alerts can be figured using first and last name, business name or other common data used to index county records.

They are sent after each day’s new recordings in the clerk’s office have been verified.

The service is free, but citizens have the ability to subscribe to a higher level of service that will include an image of the document in question.

Price said she is not aware of any such fraud cases yet in Wood County, but it has happened in neighboring counties.

“So it’s just a matter of time,” she said.

Property and mortgage fraud is the fastest growing white color crime in the nation.

Although the alert system does not prevent fraud, it does give the owner the ability to take action quickly.