Toronto Woman Victim Of House Theft, Cost $50K To Recover It

A Toronto woman attempting to sell her home had it swiped instead. A "For Sale" sign in her front yard may have made her a target of house thieves. It took her close to a year and $50,000 to get it back. To read the full article reported in The Vancouver Province, see Beware fraudsters stealing homes (You can lose your house without even realizing it).
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Home Thieves Zero In On Homes With "For Sale" Signs

Putting a "For Sale" sign on your front lawn could be placing a homeowner's home and personal information at risk, according to a report in CityNews. When a "For Sale" sign goes up on someone's front lawn, scammers will look up the owner's information and use those details to take out a mortgage against the home. To read more, including the story of Toronto, Canada woman Susan Lawrence who had her home stolen from out from underneath her, see Mortgage Fraudsters Targeting Homes With "For Sale" Signs.

Click here to watch the TV report on CityNews.ca, or here for other posts on the Toronto home theft.
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Paralegal Charged With Clipping Clients Of $460K In Real Estate Deals

In Hamilton, Ontario, The Toronto Star reports:

• A Hamilton paralegal is accused of stealing nearly half a million dollars from at least five clients who entrusted her with their power of attorney or with mortgage funds to close real estate deals. Shellee Spinks, 45, who ran a paralegal service out of a Hunter Street legal office, was arrested this week and charged with one count of theft by power of attorney and four counts of theft by conversion.

• Hamilton police Detective Craig Parmenter said not all the complainants are from Hamilton and other jurisdictions in Ontario are also investigating complaints. He said the charges before the court involve $462,000 allegedly defrauded between September 2006 and Feb. 27. Some of the missing money was being held in trust in order to discharge a mortgage. "Quite frankly, I expect once the newspaper article goes out, I'm going to get more people, especially on the power of attorney side... Once they start looking at their records, they may find something amiss."

For more, see Hamilton paralegal accused of theft (Woman allegedly stole nearly $500,000 from at least five clients).

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