All Forum Posts by: Umesh Menon

I see your point, can you pm me the contact for your attorney if possible 

Thanks for the detailed explanation @Peter Walther I suspect it’s going to go the route you have indicted. Can you please share the details of the NJ attorney who has experience dealing with such cases?

thanks again for weighing in

Umesh 

The property is in NJ and the wiring instructions were manipulated through an email hack. Not sure if it was the attorneys account or our email account. Since attorney had flagged this as a potential fraud, it made us super nervous about getting our portion of the money through wire transfer. We ended up physically visiting the title company office to collect our portion of the certified check the same day. At that point, we reiterated that they validate the details with the mortgage company prior to transferring the remaining portion of the funds.however, we found out later on that there was disconnect between title company’s  closing Dept vs accounts Dept whereby they never validated the wiring details prior to transferring the funds.

The payoff details with wiring instructions was provided to our attorney ( Sellers) who immediately flagged it as a possible fraud and alerted the title company of the same. Title company was asked to validate the wiring instructions prior to sending it to the mortgage lender which they acknowledged and accepted. However, we found out there was some disconnect between their closing department and accounting department whereby they never were able to confirm the details and ended up wiring the funds without getting proper validation.

Thanks for the tip @Michael Plante.  I had reached out to the FBI field office earlier and they directed me to the Attorney Generals consumer affairs office which I plan to call next week. I was originally thinking of posting it on Social Media however I like your idea better.

@Russell Brazil, I was hoping the title company’s insurance to cover however the title company is trying to avoid that option, hence looking into alternatives.

Jay,

My real estate attorney who represented me during the closing is looking into finding out who the title insurer and the underwriter is. We have filed a complaint with the local police and have also filed another one with the Internet Crimes division since Title company has not furnished any evidence of the same ( they claimed they have done these as well). At this point am trying to collect all evidence to be shared with my mortgage servicer so they can make an exception and not mark my loan as delinquent thereby keeping my credit intact. Alternatively, I’m trying to find a litigation attorney who can assist me with next steps in regards to dealing with the title company. Please let me know if there is any other avenues that I should consider in parallel. 

Thanks 

Thanks Dan and Jay for the prompt feedback. The title had been transferred to the buyer however don’t think it’s clean since the primary lien on the house is still with my mortgage lender. The issue I’m facing now is that Title company is not forthcoming with regards to the status of their investigation. While originally they had stated they would settle it within a week or 10 days now they’ve delegated all their correspondence to an external counsel that they have hired. Instead of providing transparency on the status of the investigation they’re being cagey making me nervous if I should continue paying the mortgage. Alternatively I’m trying to work with the mortgage servicer to provide them with more documentation from my attorney so they can recommend that my account be flagged as a victim of this fraud thereby not ding my credit with the 3 agencies. The problem is if this continues I cannot be making payments with no end in sight. What is the type of lawyer I should be hiring? Thanks 

Hello BP Community,

We sold our home and the portion of the funds (~ 400K) that had to be wired to our Mortgage Servicer was sent to a fraudulent account (Wire fraud) by the title company. While Title company is investigating and trying to trace the funds; the mortgage company is following up with us to make the monthly payments. 

If we make the monthly payments until the issue is resolved, is there a way to recoup the payments once the pay off amount is retrieved? 

Alternatively, if we choose not make the monthly payments, how do we proactively ensure our loan is not reported as delinquent since we do not own the home any more?

Any help from the community is appreciated.

Thanks

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