Regrettably, many people have come to identify Matthew Cox as the face of greed in the industry.  I'm pretty sure that everyone reading this post has heard of him.  While it's true Cox is an infamous and notorious criminal, his profile more closely resembles that of a street thug than it does the typical white collar criminal. 

The truth about real estate fraud is hidden in countless files, in countless offices, in countless cities and towns across the nation.

A recent arrest in California accurately illustrates the fraud that routinely infects real estate transactions.  A 34 year old woman stands accused of abusing her notary privileges.  She notarized a single document that was ultimately recorded even though it contained a forged signature.  The authorities place a great deal of importance on a notary commission, as should you.  Notary abuse, a common element in fraud cases, undermines the integrity of court documents.

The California case is notable for a number of reasons.

They are:

• The arrest was initiated by officials for a local jurisdiction, San Bernardino County.  Until recently, real estate crime was primarily the purview of federal authorities due to it's sophistication and the prosecutorial intricacies. 
• The press release mentions nothing about a financial loss to any individual or financial institution. 
• The criminal charges stem from a single act, not from a pattern of actions affecting a number of properties.

For the real estate professional, the appearance of impropriety is equivalent to committing a crime.  This woman's career has ended regardless of the outcome of the proceedings. 

No one wants to believe that the person sitting in the adjoining cubicle is capable of committing a crime.  They are after all a colleague and a friend.  We eat lunch with them while talking about the things that everyone talks about over lunch.  Mortgage fraudsters look like us, live in the same community as us, and go to the same church as us.

Fraudsters often believe that they won't get caught or that they can talk themselves out of any situation.  Sometime they convince themselves that an act isn't serious enough to elicit a consequential response by authorities. 

Many corporations now closely examine a prospective employee's driving history before making a hiring decision.  A patten of past parking tickets or moving offenses often points to an "above the law" type personality trait.

Women, like the notary mentioned above, go to prison every day for committing white collar crimes.  Often, they're mothers leaving children behind.

There's a general misconception that real estate fraud is prosecuted only when it's highly orchestrated, involves major losses, and has wide spread implications.  It's simply untrue.