Home Stealing - The Ultimate in Identity Theft
Scams and fraud crimes are most dangerous when they are highly complex and there is little information available to successfully warn and educate potential victims and the public at large. A fairly new and little known scam involves two common crimes, mortgage fraud and identity theft, and it goes by the names of “home stealing” or “house stealing”.
This crime is so new that the average home owner may be unaware that they are the targets of a new scam. Warnings need to go out at a faster rate, because according to the FBI, new or not, home stealing crimes are on the rise. Although the FBI are aware of the crime, the majority of local authorities and fraud crime specialists are unaware of or are just learning of home stealing themselves.
What is Home Stealing?
House stealing is a crime in which a con artist can steal your home while you are still living in it! This crime can sometimes have multiple victims. You the home owner will be the first victim and the person that the criminal will sell your home to will be the other.
Home stealing is a scary fraud scam, because the thieves are actually selling your home. They may list your house on the internet, showing images of your house as they try to get online victims to mail them a down payment that they will then run away with.
The con artist for this new breed of mortgage fraud can leave you with a huge headache and a legal mess as you realize the horrifying truth — your home no longer belongs to you.
How Does the Theft Work?
A con artist will begin this mortgage fraud by choosing a house that they would like to sell. This can be done by looking at listings online, in newspapers or public databases. They can and will also stake out a house that is up for sale, a vacation home or a house that is being put up to rent.
The thieves will then attempt to gain access to the homes that are empty. If they house that they have chosen is inhabited, they will simply wait for the home owners and family leave for a regular day of work and errands.
Once a home has been chosen, stealing the identity of the home owner will be a necessary and fairly simple task. They can do an internet search to gain access to your personal information, or the thieves will simply break in and take the paperwork and documents that they will need.
After the home owner’s information has become available to them, the con artist will steal the identities by forging and creating new and fake identification including picture ID’s and social security cards.
A quick trip to the nearest store that sells office supplies can help the con artists to get their hands on any forms that they will need to do a transfer and make them the new owners of the house that used to belong to you.
Armed with the fake documents, identification and deed transfer, the criminals will brazenly walk into government offices to hand over their fraudulent paperwork. When they leave the building, they will be doing so as the new owners of your home, with the deed to match. While the criminals shop around for a buyer, the real home owner will continue to pay the mortgage, completely oblivious to the fact that they no longer own their own home.
In another part of this scam, a con artist will go to various banks, where they will take out huge loans and mortgages. This can leave the real home owner and victim with large debts that they may be unaware of for a long time.
The criminals will make money by putting an empty house up for sale — due to you placing it on the market, being on vacation, the thief knowing when you leave and return, or if you use the property as a vacation home. They can also get a couple hundred dollars by selling the house while you are still living in it, by selling to buyers who have no problem writing a check for a home that they have only seen pictures of online.
How to Prevent Home Stealing
One of the few things that a home owner can do to prevent or stay ahead of this fraud is to be suspicious. Carefully check the mail, and if letters arrive from a mortgage company that you have no business with, you should read it before contacting the company directly.
Check your credit reports regularly and scan for any strange transactions or queries. For instance, a thief that applies for a mortgage using your name will show up as a record on your report. Credit monitoring will detect this, and identity theft protection programs will block it.
Home owners should also check the local deed offices in their county a few times a year, so that they can make sure that all of the signatures are correct and that the paperwork is legitimate.
Avoid giving information to individuals on the telephone, especially if they are the ones who called you. Search for the official telephone number of the company and call them yourself, to ask questions, so that you can be sure that you are talking to a real representative and not a scammer.
What to do if it happens to you
If you as a home owner realize that you have become a victim, it will be a long legal journey as you try to prove that you did not change your deed and mortgage or gave legal access to the con artist. The burden of proof will become the victim’s responsibility. With more awareness of this crime, law enforcement agencies will be better able to help you undo the damage and regain your home.
At the end of the day, doing everything you can to prevent this scam from being successful is the best option available. If you do become a victim, contact the FBI office in your state to find out what steps you can take to regain your home.
http://www.fbi.gov/contact/fo/fo.htm
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