Home Theft Information and Prevention
How to avoid having your home stolen
Imagine finding out that, in the eyes of the law, you didn't own your own home. This has been happening top people for several years, but it is only starting to get national attention. House Theives can make a claim on a home simply by getting a blank mortgage deed form from an office supply store, forging a few signatures, and then taking possesion of a house. In cases where homes are vacant, they may even collect rent on a house or "sell" it to a bank or other con artists. They may steal your identity in order to do this, and your credit can take a beating when liens and foreclosures mount up on a house that you might have owned free and clear. In other cases, homes of people who recently died are fraudulently sold to parties who claim to be relatives. The true owners or heirs may take years of legal wrangling to prove that they own the home, at which point the home can be damage and the contents sold.
How can you avoid house theft? First, keep track of the records related to your home. Check with your public records department to make sure no extra loans have been made on your home, and you are listed as the owner. Second, be wary if you get any mortgage coupons in the mail, or someone comes to appraise your home with no advance notice. In one version of this scam, a person posing as a renter uses a fake ID to rent your house, and an accomplice poses as you when appraisers or inspectors come to check on the equity loan, second mortgage, or sale documents for the house itself. In several cases, doing a background check on potential renters may prevent this problem.
On the CNBC Show "American Greed: The Bonnie and Clyde of Mortgage Fraud" a home stealing scam was outlined in detail, with the scammers getting away with millions of dollars in fraud before finally getting caught. Despite the checks and balances that go into buying and selling a home, there are still loopholes when it comes to identity theft, and the money generated through home theft can be long gone before banks and investigators know what is happening.
Notes and Special Information
Special note: Mortgage fraud and home stealing is becoming more common, as some scam artists trick refinancing and mortgage modification seekers into selling their homes to third parties who take the cash value from the home and let it go into foreclosure without making payments.