Las Vegas-Area Cops Charge Escrow Agent In $500K+ Theft; Announce A Ramping Up Of "Rescue" Scam Investigations; Undercover Stings In The Offing

In Las Vegas, Nevada, KLAS-TV Channel 8 reports:

• A local escrow officer was arrested after Metro Fraud investigators say she pocketed more than $500,000 in escrow funds. Metro says this latest case is just the tip of the iceberg in what they believe will be a deluge of mortgage fraud cases in the weeks and months ahead. [...] Police arrested Sheila Katherine Williams on Tuesday for her alleged role in a scheme to steal $568,000 from a valley lending institution.

In a news conference held Wednesday, Metro Fraud investigators announced that they are seeing more desparate homeowners being victimized in foreclosure rescue scams where they unwittingly sign over the deed to their homes to a con artist who promises to take over the house payments but fails to do so.

• Metro says they're currently cross training all of its fraud investigators to handle potential mortgage fraud. And the department even plans to conduct its own undercover sting operations to crack down on the fraud scam artists who target homeowners and businesses in financial distress.

For more, see Metro Targeting Real Estate Fraud (read story) (watch video).

See Theft Of Escrow Funds I and Theft Of Escrow Funds II for other stories of trust account / escrow account theft of funds. sneaky slick escrow agents beta