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Mortgage fraud units proposed
By admin | March 9, 2008
Mortgage fraud units proposed
Mortgage fraud units proposed
Officials in Cook, DuPage Counties press for task forces to probe suspected falsified transfers
By Susan Chandler
March 9, 2008
When Cook County Recorder of Deeds Eugene Moore discovered his cousin had been bilked out of her house, he came up with an early warning system for mortgage fraud — the humble postcard.
Beginning in 2007, Moore’s office began mailing postcards to homeowners when quitclaim deeds were filed, transferring interest in their properties. Some criminals had been forging owners’ signatures on the deeds, transferring ownership to themselves, and then mortgaging the homes without the real owners being any wiser — until the foreclosure notices started arriving.
But mortgage scam artists have stayed a step ahead of the game. Sometimes they pull the postcards out of the homeowners’ mailboxes, Moore said. Occasionally they put the homeowners’ mail on a vacation hold at the post office so the alerts are delayed.
Now some criminals are switching to other types of documents to effect their fraudulent transfers, ones that don’t trigger postcard mailings.
Moore said he needs additional resources to keep up with the bad guys. So he is asking for $1 million in additional funding from the county to create a mortgage fraud task force inside his office. The squad would be made up of several sheriff’s police officers trained in financial crimes and at least one full-time prosecutor.
Topics: morgate news |