Title fraud occurs when someone tries to impersonate the true owner of a property to refinance (to pull money out) or to sell the property and keep the money. This can happen is several ways and it just requires a good fake id and a fake notarized document. Just recently a story hit the news when some scammers tried to sell Graceland. Yes, the Graceland of Elvis Presley fame. The purported scammer presented documents claiming to show that Lisa Marie Presley, the recently deceased daughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley, had borrowed $3.8 million from Naussany Investments and used Graceland as collateral. Apparently it wasn't true and the docs were forged! A Tennessee judge ultimately stopped the sale. To read more about this crazy case, and the Nigerian based scammers, check out this article on CNN.com .
Title fraud is rare. According to the FBI's annual Internet Crime Report cited in the CNN article, there were a total of 9,521 reported real estate scams, including title theft, last year. Even though it is rare that doesn't mean you shouldn't pay attention to your title. Call me and we can look up your title and make sure it is still in your name or the name of your trust. Why take a chance? If it can happen to the heirs of the King, it could happen to you.