Deed theft criminals start to get aggressive

We have written previously about the problem of deed theft. Deed theft is one of many financial scams that is intended to steal property from a homeowner. In the most common version of the scam, a company will advertise that they can “help” homeowners avoid foreclosure on their property. These companies don’t advertise on television; they usually just post flyers on telephone poles around town. 

The scam works like this - a representative of the company tells the homeowner that they can “help” the owner avoid foreclosure by assisting with the house payments. The company offers to pay the note for a year, with the owner living on the property, while the owner gets his or her financial life in order. In order to make this happen, the owner is asked to sign the deed to the property over to the company. At the end of the year, the company will sell the house back to the owner at a reasonable price.

The only problem with this is that the company doesn’t sell it back. In fact, once the title is signed over, the company can do what it likes. This usually involves evicting the former owner and selling the house at a profit. There is no help, no assistance, and no interest in the owner whatsoever. This whole scam is just a blatant attempt to steal the property.

This scam has been going on for years and it has been quite successful. Apparently, it either hasn’t been successful enough, or the companies have decided that waiting a year just takes too long. Instead, a new mortgage scam has developed - out and out theft.

This scam is much easier to do and doesn’t take nearly as long. The crook simply forges a “quitclaim deed”, has it notarized, and files it with the local county or jurisdiction. A quitclaim deed is just what the name suggests; it is a document signed by a property owner stating that he or she no longer has any interest in the property. The document designates someone who will take over ownership. The crook simply forges the owner’s name, signs his own name as the new owner and files it with the county. All it takes to make this work is a careless notary public or one that is a participant in the scheme.

Once this is done and filed with the county, the crook is free to do as he pleases with the property. He can sell it or refinance it. Once the funds are made available, he can take them and disappear. This is often done without the proper owner of the property even realizing that it has taken place. While still a relatively rare occurrence in most of the country, this type of fraud seems to be happening more and more frequently in the Southeast, and especially Florida.

County clerks rarely follow up on such documents to determine whether or not the signatures are genuine, and it is up to the owner to prove that the documents are fraudulent. This is often difficult if the owner is unaware that the fraud has taken place.

Solving such crimes is tough on law enforcement, too, as they often have little more to go by than a name.