LANSING -- Ingham County Register of Deeds Curtis Hertel Jr. is leading a new campaign to fight a fast-growing crime.

"The FBI has cited property fraud and mortgage fraud as the largest-growing white-collar crime in America," he said Wednesday outside of the Veterans Memorial Courthouse in Lansing. "Michigan has been cited as one of the top five states in terms of that crime."

Why the growing popularity? The crime's relative ease. A scammer simply creates a fake deed in your name, forges your signature at the land-records office, then takes out a mortgage on your home -- and pockets the money.

"Once their name is on that property, they can go take a mortgage on that property," Hertel said. "And they can rip the equity right out from underneath your home."

That prompted the county to organize a new online Property Fraud Alert System, launched Wednesday at a press conference at the state capital. Sign up your home, Hertel said, and you can receive alerts anytime a property document is filed under your name.

"This system will guarantee, that when something is filed in a citizen's name in Ingham County, they will get an e-mail or a telephone call telling them that it was filed," Hertel said.

The group most affected by property fraud? Senior citizens. Hertel and other officials said they're simply easier targets for fraud criminals.

"The retirees who are often hit by these scams," said Debbie De Leon, chairwoman of the Ingham County Board of Commissioners. "They target vacant homes," noting that many seniors leave the state during the winter months.

Hertel added seniors can be a more lucrative target for property thieves. "They are the ones most likely to have a large amount of equity in their home. It doesn't make sense to defraud someone who doesn't have much equity."

Of course, many seniors don't have e-mail accounts, or use them infrequently. Hertel says that's no problem at all.

"Their other option is to call the property fraud alert hotline. Then they wait until something is filed on their property."

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The Property Fraud Alert Web site: www.propertyfraudalert.com/inghammi

The Hotline: (800) 728-3858