County approves auditor amendment to add property fraud alert on website

At its Sept. 11 meeting, the Mahoning County Board of Commissioners approved an amendment to an agreement with PivotPoint to add a fraud-alert feature to county website services so taxpayers can sign up to receive notice if a transfer is recorded on their property. The amendment was presented by Auditor Ralph, who said the system is intended to notify owners “before it transfers and not afterwards.”

The change was included in a package of agreements approved by the commissioners; a motion to approve agreements a through d passed on a roll call vote with commissioners present voting yes. County Recorder Michael Scersell told the commissioners the recorder’s office already offers a deed-fraud alert on its website and welcomed the auditor’s addition as “double protection,” citing a rise in deed-fraud attempts affecting some senior residents.

Ralph said the amendment will add signup capability and that the office hopes the alert will be “very successful with helping them with the fraud.” The board did not provide a timeline in the meeting for when the alert will appear on the public site or details about costs in the approved amendment package.

The board’s action directs staff to finalize the amendment with PivotPoint as presented and proceed under the existing agreement framework.