The latest data released this week by the Consumer Sentinel Network Report for the Federal Trade Commission shows that Identity theft was the number one complaint for calendar year 2010.
Florida is the state with the highest per capita* rate of reported identity theft complaints, followed by Arizona and California. This is very interesting because these same states were also ranked within the top 5 in foreclosures (RealtyTrac)!
Top Five Foreclosure States 2010
1. Nevada
2. Arizona
3. Florida
4. California
5. Utah
The reason we combined these two topics is because we have lived through both foreclosure and identity theft. So if you don’t think this can happen to you…think again. In our case the identity theft occurred when we tried to obtain a home equity loan in 2006 to turn our hobby into a business. We lived in an upscale home, valued at almost $400,000 (2,800+ square feet), large patio with enclosed pool, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths and a 3 car garage.
The company we selected sent a representative to our home. We only provided very preliminary data (name, address, income and notarized signature) to see if we qualified for a $25,000 home equity loan to turn our hobby into a business. Within 3 days, these con artists forged our signature and transferred their name onto a warranty deed to our home, then filed in the Orange County Comptroller office. Just like that we no longer held the title to our beautiful home. We called our mortgage company’s fraud department and requested they put an alert on our account. We went down to the County offices and were told that a warranty deed was filled out correctly and the filing fees were paid. It was not their job to verify if any of the information was correct at all. So we found out that it is easier to change ownership of a $400,000 home (or real estate transaction) than it is to transfer the title of a $4,000 automobile! Does this make any sense? By the way this is still true today.
This company also sent a property appraiser out to our home and told us they were there to do a survey because the house was up for sale. Evidently this company was trying to refinance and strip the home of its equity which was close to $200,000. We called the FBI who said our house wasn’t valuable enough for them to investigate (even though their website stated they were supposed to investigate these types of cases.) We also talked to every county official, the police/sheriff’s departments, city and county officials and got absolutely no real help, but got a whole lot of promises.
To make a long story short, we used up all of our savings, sold cars, a truck and had numerous yard sales to raise extra cash to get our home back. Almost one year later, we received a call from the very person who came to our home to get the application for the home equity loan asking us for help. You see, she had a falling out with the owners of the company. The same people who she used to work for were trying to evict her from the home she was living in (which was another of their stolen houses.) We agreed to meet her at a neutral location, with witnesses and she signed back all the deeds that were still in her name back to the original owners. Unfortunately, some of the homes had already been repossessed by the lenders. This company was finally shut down after an extensive investigation (after other homeowners filed complaints) which eventually exposed these scammers of stealing millions of dollars in property and equity (Orlando Sentinel).
Most people cannot even begin to understand that there are people out there who get up every day to steal from other people. We believe that thousands of homeowners in the state of Florida lost their homes, not to the foreclosure process itself, but to identity theft. It has been documented many times over the past few years on local and national newscasts that foreclosures affected hundreds of thousands of African-Americans due to subprime loans. We will try to find more information on these mortgage related identity theft cases that the mainstream media hasn’t covered too much.
Here is a comparison on how the reported number of national fraud and identity theft complaints has skyrocketed during the period from 2001 to the end of 2010:
- In 2010 there were over 250,000 identity theft complaints, which is 191% higher than in 2001.
- The amount of fraud cases more than quadrupled since 2001 with+ 428% increase.
- The combined total of fraud, identity theft and other complaints was up +311% (2010 vs. 2001).
Thankfully, the laws have changed and many of the unscrupulous mortgage fraud companies are now out of business. But there is a continuous influx of new predators to replace them, especially on the internet. Last year’s data on the method of how these fraudulent companies contacted consumers showed that 45% were contacted by email; 19% via the telephone (and this is a key method to target the elderly). The alternative methods were by regular postal service the Internet/Web Site/Other.
The sad part is that even though The Consumer Sentinel Network Report documented over 1.3 million complaints last year, which led to investigations. But far too many did not report the various types of fraud or identity theft to the authorities. Therefore there is no real way to know the actual number of identity theft cases against American citizens, especially African-Americans. You know the saying that when America has a cold, the African-American community has pneumonia.
Just think about it over the past few years there have been more and more companies advertising identity theft prevention, protection and monitoring programs. If this was not a major issue, these companies would not have become thriving businesses in such a short time. So don’t ever believe that fraud or identity theft won’t happen to you.
*Florida showed 114.8 complaints per every 100,000 people in the total population or 21,581 complaints reported.
