Maybe the current owners should be provided the opportunity to sign off on the transfer...we do it with cars. That the title company doesn’t check is the problem. This is committing a crime in the open - how is this prosecuted? It shouldn’t be this easy. The other question I have is, if the fraud was allowed by a company - why aren’t they held liable?
This is wrong on many levels - including the way law enforcement handles it.
This fraud almost always involves forged signatures of the homeowners and fake ID used to make a real notarized quitclaim transferring title to a purported younger relative who then uses the equity value of the paid off home to get a 2nd mortgage and then skips town on it.
And it’s not just one person. It’s a ring or group that engages in all kinds of ID fraud.