Title Compliance Office – SCAM ALERT!
Recently I’ve had several members phone me or send me a copy of a report allegedly from the Title Compliance Office in Riverside County. Printed in English on one side and Spanish on the other, they warn homeowners that they need to have a deed to their home so they can prove they own it. In official souding language they offer to get you an 'official' or 'certified' copyof your deed for the paltry sum of $167.
This is a blatant scam trying to separate you from $167. Everybody gets a copy of your Grant Deed when you purchase a property and if you don’t have it either the Riverside County recorder can get you one or most any title company can do it for nothing or a small fee for printing and mailing. What's worse - by signing the document you are giving them written access to your records.
Here's what the Better Business Bureau had to say:
We strongly question the company’s reliability for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law’s licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company’s industry is known for its fraudulent business practices.
I wrote this initial blog in April of last year. At that time we became aware of the mailing in our area and started working with our new DA, Paul Zellerbach. The DA's office recently announced that the individual responsible, one Alfonso Fourquet, 37, of Los Angeles has been sentenced to 169 days in jail and pay restitution of $417,000 to his victims.
$417,000? At $167 a pop, that's a lot of victims - nearly 2,500 people who didn't read my articles or John Hunneman's articles or check with the DA, who had a prominent warning on his website and did significant outreach as well. According to the release - Fourquet, who had once worked for a mortgage company, and an accomplice, were working the same scam in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas but it was Riverside County that put a stop to it.
You can read John Hunneman's article about it today here: http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/columnists/hunneman/article_bd5eaed8-4929-518f-acf1-60e3d2bddfb7.html
If you have been a victim of this scam or feel you may have been the victim of another fraud contact the DA's office:: http://rivcoda.org/consumerinfo.html
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