Fraud Watch

The American Land Title Association last week issued a warning to title agents about a new spam email going around that is meant to look like an official email from ALTA. ALTA seems to have a handle on the issue, but the news resonated on a broader scale. This spam email is so specific in its focus and is yet another warning shot that outsiders have their sights set on the title insurance industry .

A 34-count indictment was unsealed charging five people, including one title agent, with various crimes stemming from their participation in a mortgage fraud scheme between May 2004 and February 2009 that involved fraudulent documents, inflated purchase prices on loan documents for more than 100 Philadelphia properties and resulted in more than $20 million in fraudulent loan proceeds.

A North Carolina attorney was sentenced to three years in prison for, among other things, falsifying HUD-1s. Read on for details of the scheme and the total amount of money he will have to pay in restitution.

Following approximately three weeks of trial, a lawyer from Louisiana who had worked in Las Vegas as a real estate agent has been convicted by a jury of conspiracy and multiple fraud counts for his involvement in the mortgage fraud scheme involving more than 220 properties and more than $50 million in losses.

The husband of a mortgage broker/settlement agent/license title insurance agent pled guilty to making a false statement to a bank in a $12 million mortgage fraud case involving his wife and another co-conspirator — their son — reported the FBI field office in Colorado.

The real secret to a fraud attack is trickery. Even as malware viruses and bots have become more insidious and able to use new technology for nefarious purposes, the attackers still need to rely on the naive, careless or unprepared victim to fall for their trap. We’ve discussed much of this in previous articles on protecting your agency from cyber attacks, but in a recent exchange with Greg McDonald, president of Cloudstar Consulting, he gave another example of how low-tech some of these schemes can be. ...

In January, Entrust Solutions sent out an agent alert regarding a phishing scheme whereby crooks were impersonating title insurance underwriters to get a hold of banking account information. The company sent out another update this month, complete with some fraud security advice. In the scheme in question, Entrust says the perpetrators sent out massive amounts of emails targeting agents and attorneys, telling them to “Confirm Your Wiring Instructions” with them. The emails looked to be as if th...

Four Pennsylvania residents, including an attorney who provided closing and settlement services, have been indicted on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, bank fraud, filing false tax returns and failing to file tax returns connected to a mortgage fraud scheme officials say involved hundreds of properties. Several people have already pleaded guilty in the case, including an attorney and his assistant who allegedly prepared false settlement statements. Read on for the details.

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania suspended the license of an attorney who was charged with violating the rules of professional conduct for allegedly collecting $88,000 for title insurance policies after being terminated as an issuing agent. Read on for the details.

A former title company owner in Utah decided to skip the trial and pleaded guilty to charges of theft and communications fraud used to embezzle clients’ funds, according to local reports. Sentencing is now set for April 24.