Sacramento Real Estate Fraud Unit Funding Declines As Complaints Increase

In California, The Sacramento Bee reports:

• The funding for real estate fraud investigations and prosecutions has dwindled to the lowest level since 2001 in Sacramento County, even as the two detectives who investigate the crimes say they're fielding a mounting number of complaints. In real estate fraud units, investigators' and prosecutors' salaries are funded with $2 fees paid each time certain deeds are filed in the county recorder's office. [...] The timing could hardly be worse: Eroding equity has laid bare scams that went unreported in the days of big profits and fast money. Meanwhile, new hucksters are preying on those facing hard times, detectives say.

Among some of the scams mentioned in the story:

1. foreclosure consultants offering homeowners lease-back or buyback deals,
2. squatters moving into unoccupied bank-owned homes, changing locks and hooking up the power - some just live rent-free hoping to squeeze a few bucks from the banks to leave without a lengthy eviction,
3. scammers advertising foreclosed homes as "for rent," collecting a deposit from a prospective renter, and then making themselves scarce,
4. scammers taking title to homes, filing for bankruptcy protection, delaying the foreclosure process for months or years and renting out the houses in the meantime, pocketing the cash while stiffing the mortgage holder out of its monthly payments.

For more, see Sacramento realty fraud unit's funds decline; complaints rise.