Fraudulent Documents now Require County Recorder to Notify Grantors of a Sale

Thieves knowledgeable in searching the public record, and recording documents, secretly stole title to 25 vacant parcels by searching the land records, creating matching documents, forging signatures, and recording them. The fraud workers transferred properties worth more than $23 million from the rightful owners into names of “straw” buyers. One of the Counties involved says it received about 1,000 complaints about deed forgeries on properties in the last few years. Although the district attorney’s office in Riverside County, CA successfully prosecuted the forgery ring, the rightful landowners learned that it takes a lot of grief, money and time to undo a phony transaction once filed with the county recorder. Albert and Joy Rivera, scammed owners of the real estate with forged deeds filed to a straw buyer, said they feel lucky that they got their land back six months ago after 3 stressful years and paying out $20,000 in lawyer fees.

Among eight defendants who pleaded guilty in the fraud cases, the notary was sentenced to prison for 3 years, 4 months, while the real estate agent who helped to find vacant parcels, got 9 years, 4 months. The last defendant, thought to be the instigator, got 15 years 4 months in state prison as his sentence.

Los Angeles County, CA has obtained legislation to notify residents when deeds are recorded against their property. “I think we have a very successful program and it is a good model for other counties to implement,” said Mr. Herrera, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Consumer Affairs. The legislation allows charging a fee to fund the program.

Another remarkable story for WHY people should purchase a title policy. To see the more details of the story see FRAUD CASES