homes sold from underneath me by a name doppelganger in jail

homes sold from underneath me by a name doppelganger in jail

Rental Property Investor · Oakland, CA · Member since 2017 · 50 posts · 12 votes

Man oh man, where to start. Dirty laundry headed your way...

Over a year ago I attempted to refi one of my properties that had significant equity in order to finally purchase a place of my own. My lender got back to my quickly, "do you have an LLC now?", me "not that I am aware of...". Turns out, I (me, myself) 'sold' not one, but TWO of my properties in the same county to someone else, an LLC. Except I didn't do that.

The house I wanted to buy fell through and I focused on figuring out how the heck this happened. We did some more digging and found everything MID-transaction. What are the odds! Funds hadn't been disbursed yet. I was able to get phone numbers of all involved and come to find out someone with my exact name pretended to be me and sell my houses 6 hours away from where they were located. He just so happened to be in jail for attempting to get a car in my name 3 months prior. There are mobile notaries that specialize in jail visits if you can believe it ( I never stop learning in this industry). After discovering who the main players were, and getting their individual stories, I find out that the representing agent was friends with my name doppelganger, whom I'll call 'Mr. C'. He reached out to a broker and real estate attorney duo (the LLC) and offered to sell them for about half of their worth. Mr. C was smart enough to use the automated system for my lender to request payoff statements (how he figured out the lender I will never know). Then this got weirder..

title and escrow had asked some key questions about the title being under a woman and having it transferred to a man because of a recent sex change operation Mr. C stated he had. Mr. C had also provided them with two SSNs (just in case one didn't work). He had a criminal record of stealing his families property and was presently in jail. His reason for selling my houses? "His family that he doesn't get along with live there and he wants them gone"

I'm just not sure how the agent, broker who purchased my homes, and title/escrow were all getting ready to close on this when there were so many red flags? Needless to say, Mr. C was transferred to the county where 'his' houses are and I am still working to get the transfer of title restored to my name without a glitch. 

There are so many things on the internet about title fraud, but none where everyone was caught red-handed and where the criminal had hardly any matching information me aside from our names. Interested to hear what the BP community thinks as I have scrubbed this site looking for a similar scenario to no avail. 

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Investor · Marin County California · Member since 2018 · 1k+ posts · 2k+ votes
6y

The "buyers" may well have been complicit here.  Buying a property at 50% of market sure seems like a red flag.  Have you brought this to the attention of the Alameda County District Attorneys office?  

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  • Natalie KolodijBusiness Member
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    Tax Strategist| National Tax Educator| Accepting New Clients · Member since 2014 · 3k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    6y

    Holy crap this is insane. 

    Definitely interested to hear more feedback/thoughts from those with more experience in the industry than myself- but the title company and mortgage company are who really dropped the ball here. 

    Were either of the SSN's provided yours? What other than your name did they have to confirm identity? 

  • Specialist · OverTheRainbow · Member since 2020 · 607 posts · 909 votes
    6y
    Originally posted by @Natalie Kolodij:

    Holy crap this is insane. 

    Definitely interested to hear more feedback/thoughts from those with more experience in the industry than myself- but the title company and mortgage company are who really dropped the ball here. 

    Were either of the SSN's provided yours? What other than your name did they have to confirm identity? 

    This one is from Seattle

    The fraud ring that wants to sell you homes they don’t own

     https://jessejones.com/the-fra...

  • Rental Property Investor · Oakland, CA · Member since 2017 · 50 posts · 12 votes
    6y

    @Natalie Kolodij yes one of the SSNs WAS mine!

  • Investor · Marin County California · Member since 2018 · 1k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    6y

    The "buyers" may well have been complicit here.  Buying a property at 50% of market sure seems like a red flag.  Have you brought this to the attention of the Alameda County District Attorneys office?  

  • Rental Property Investor · Oakland, CA · Member since 2017 · 50 posts · 12 votes
    6y

    @John Farady wow and that’s only 5 days ago! Nobody asks for ID on these things and they should. What do we even record our thumb prints for? My birthday, soc, gender, and middle name didn’t match his when they got his ID at closing.

    They DID get a copy of my deed and it showed my gender though, I guess a sex change is the only logical explanation.

    I’m thankful to be in a much better situation than her given that everything had halted early on. Thanks for sharing that.

  • Rental Property Investor · Oakland, CA · Member since 2017 · 50 posts · 12 votes
    6y

    @Darius Ogloza not Alameda county, but yes the DA is involved. But it seems geared towards Mr. C for now.

  • Investor · New Orleans, La. · Member since 2019 · 1 post · 1 vote
    6y

    Good stuff in the sense  of this is a great learning experience for you and not to mention that you complicated the plot of their little drama by entering in the third act. Good also b/c the conspirators are caught and hopefully justice will be served, and it looks like you'll keep your properties and continue on with business as normal. 

    Plus, the real estate attorney, the title company, etc are exposed to civil liability as well. A scene in the movie "Casino" comes to mind when Robert DeNiro's character has to fire a manager after 3 slot machines simultaneously hit the jackpot and the manger did nothing. He said that the manager was "either too stupid to see the scam, or he was in on it". I think that line applies to the broker, attorney, title and escrow, etc..

    Thank you for sharing this experience with us. It will serve as great learning template. Please keep us posted as the rest of the details and angles reveal themselves. 

    Best of luck friend!

  • Rental Property Investor · Oakland, CA · Member since 2017 · 50 posts · 12 votes
    4y

    @Tim Castillo

    Thanks Tim. Still here! Just getting the houses out back in my name. Man this process is long. Mr C is free and can’t be found (thanks to COVID). Hoping to work this out in 2022!

  • Investor · Mesquite, TX · Member since 2019 · 111 posts · 15 votes
    4y

    Holy smokes! This is insane. Wishing all the best to get everything sorted out.

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