Deed Scams No Longer Flying Under The Radar In Brooklyn DA's Office

In Brooklyn, New York, a recent story in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle describing the newly formed Mortgage Fraud and Real Estate Crimes Unit of the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office referred to two recent cases in which criminal charges have been brought against alleged deed scammers:

• One man who was arrested earlier this year had forged a deed that said he was the owner of a 39-story co-operative housing unit, where he had lived and even been president of the co-op board — almost two decades prior. He tried to take out multi-million dollar mortgages on the building before being caught.

• Another man who was indicted recently met people in foreclosure, and told them he was an appraiser from their bank. He simply slipped documents in front of them and got the homeowners signatures down. “It was a classic rush job,” [unit chief Richard] Farrell said. “He said it was all a formality — but it’s the deed” that has been signed over.

• To stop these types of bare-bones deceptions, [Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J.] Hynes wants more community education on these issues. “P.T. Barnum famously said that there’s a sucker born every minute,” Hynes said.(1) “Most of the fraud is preventable.”

Source: Brooklyn Prosecutors Responding to Increased Gang and Real Estate Crime.

(1) Using the term "sucker" in a way that could reasonably be construed as an indirect reference to the victims of deed scams appears to be a rather poor choice words on the part of the Brooklyn DA. DeedContraTheft