(People’s Journal)
The selling of fraudulent certificate of title is one of the most common scams in the country. In General Santos City alone, there are about 6,000 who have been victimized by a syndicate which also seemed to have duped the government.
BFS (Bahay Financial Services), the only mortgage services and special asset management company, shared some pointers on how not to fall prey to scam artists and make sure that the certificates of title you are holding are genuine. BFS has resolved more than 30,000 highly-defaulted home loan accounts and provided homes to more than 150,000 Filipinos.
The Transfer Certificate (TCT), the Registry of Deeds’ (RD) copy and the Owner’s Duplicate should be identical in all aspects including, capitalization, punctuation marks, erasures and even typos. For reference, ask for the Registry of Deeds’ original copy and compare with the owner’s duplicate.
The last two or three digits of the TCT number should be identical to the page number. The serial number (SN) of the title as arranged in the Registry Book should be consecutively numbered.
The Owner’s Duplicate copy of the Certificates of the title has the word Owner’s Duplicate and a red seal. The Original Copy does not contain either of these. All judicial forms do not blot or stain the paper when the red seal is wet.
With the case of year indicators, the year when the judicial form was used or revised should be before the date when the title was issued, except in cases of reconstituted titles.
Just like when identifying legitimate money from fake ones, the form shows obvious water marks that cannot be duplicated by any means. The TCT has a decorative border called the Intaglio which is a design, figure, or ornamentation carved, engraved, or etched into the surface of the material used. Upon closer inspection of the TCT, fibers of the paper material used in the forms are observable. Different colored circular patterns are also seen on a legitimate TCT. These are called planchettes and they serve a special purpose.
Visit any of the BFS offices in Makati, Alabang, and Davao or call 756-6230, call the Davao office direct through (082) 221-0809, or call PLDT toll-free outside of Metro Manila and Davao through 1-800-10-2255-BFS (237) or through text number 0922-9999-BFS, via email at info@bfs.com.ph.
