I'm not sure this link will remain good, since it is to a news story that may be moved to an archive, but it tells about a case of a dishonest mortgage company employee who engineered assignments of the same mortgage loan to multiple assignees. The couple who owned the home knew nothing about the fraud until they went to refinance their mortgage, two years after buying their house. At that time, they found the mortgage had been sold to a parade of different companies -- all of whom expected payment in full. They then became embroiled in a nightmarish brew of legal efforts to clear the title to their house. In the meantime, their credit was ruined, they were stretched to the breaking point by having to make payments on both their old house and their new house and were unable to sell the one that had the fraudulent assignments on it. Then the wife was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease and has only a few months to live.

According to the report, at least 12 other homeowners were similarly victimized. The fraud was accomplished by an employee using counterfeit papers to fraudulently sell the mortgages.

Could this happen at your institution? What safeguards do you have in place (or could you put in place) to guard against it?

[This message has been edited by Mary Beth Guard (edited 12-28-2000).]

Here's the link to the news story. Hope it works!

Mortgage assignment scam story