Federal Judge Marilyn Huff sentenced Alejandro Lopez to three months in prison and four months in residential re-entry center. Alejandro Lopez is a former real estate agent who helped broker home to loans to 200 people who doesn’t have the ability to pay for these. The real estate agent overstated borrowers’ incomes, paid for fake tax returns, transferred their own money into their clients’ bank accounts and pretended to be the borrowers’ employers when lenders called for references.

Lopez and his brother ran a Real Estate office in San Marcos. The Federal judge Marilyn Huff cited the growing number of mortgage fraud cases.

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The FBI calls it the “latest scam on the block,” but for years now we’ve been warning people and reporting about scam artists who steal your identity and then your home. Now, after years of reporting and writing about this sinister act, the FBI is stepping up its efforts to make homeowners aware of the horrible connection between identity theft and real estate fraud.

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Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna announced that much of his 2008 legislative agenda has survived the 2008 Legislative session.

Mortgage foreclosure fraud:

House Bill 2791, sponsored by Sen. Pat Lantz, D-Gig Harbor, helps reduce foreclosure rescue schemes, including those with an option to allow the original homeowner to buy or lease back the property. The bill has passed the Senate, 39-6.

Identity theft:

Bills giving ID theft victims more tools in the fight to clear their names are now one step closer to the Governor’s signature.

House Bill 2637, which allows records provided by out-of-state businesses to be authenticated by affidavit rather than in person in criminal cases, has passed both houses and now heads to the Governor’s desk.

HB 2637, sponsored by Rep. Kirk Pearson, R-Monroe, was recommended by the Law Enforcement Group against Identity Theft (LEGIT). LEGIT was a workgroup convened after McKenna’s 2005 ID Theft Summit formed to identify ways to better ensure successful identity theft prosecutions and reduce the number of crimes that occur in Washington.

Senate Bill 5878 incorporated two proposals requested by the Attorney General’s Office, one requiring police reports for victims of identity theft and the other clarifying that each act prohibited by the identity theft statute is a separate unit of prosecution. The bill, prime-sponsored by Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, passed the House of Representatives 95-0 on Tuesday.

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Real estate and mortgage scammers be very warned! The Missouri lawmakers have final identified mortgage fraud as “making false statements or failing to disclose material facts” on Thursday that created the specific crime of mortgage fraud. Anyone found guilty of mortgage fraud can have his or her licenses revoked. The bill also creates fines for real estate brokers, agents and appraisers. It also attempts to influence real estate appraisals through extortion or bribery.

The bill, which had already passed the Senate, was endorsed 141-5 by the House last Thursday and now goes to the governor.

This bill will protect the people from real estate scammers.

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Home or business owners will torch their dwellings or stage a burglary for insurance money, but disguise the crime as a racial, religious or other hate crime. They might spray-paint racial insults on the interior walls, for example. Initially, the crimes often generate outpourings of community support and sympathy for the apparent victims, with considerable news coverage.

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Most insurance agents are honest and ethical, but a growing number of agents are bilking their customers. Dishonest agents steal their customers’ premiums, but not buy the requested policies. They cover up the thefts by issuing fake policies or other evidence of coverage. Customers often discover the scam only when they make a claim and the insurer says there’s no coverage. Dishonest agents also will secretly slip unwanted coverage into a policy to boost their own commissions. They may also convince policyholders — especially seniors — to cash out their life policies and buy a new policy with no accumulated value.

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Drivers maneuver innocent motorists into low-speed crashes, often making it seem the motorists are at fault. In many cases, the con’s car is packed with so-called passengers who are part of the scam. The passengers claim they received painful (and fake) back and neck injuries that require expensive treatment from a chiropractor or physical therapist who’s part of the scam. The shady medical provider files thousands of dollars with the motorist’s insurance company for useless or even phantom treatment. Increasingly, the crashes never happen at all—the cash and ensuing treatment are fabricated. The largest concentrations of staged accidents are in urban areas. The high traffic volume makes large numbers of injury claims more plausible and recruits for the scams are more-easily available.

1. Organized gangs: Organized gangs involving recruiters, car “passengers,” doctors, medical clinics, lawyers are involved in many of the largest staged-accident crimes. The gangs lure motorists into crashes, crash their own cars into each other, or invent “paper” accidents that never happened in order to make large volumes of bogus injury claims. These rings are widespread in several areas of the US, and often involve immigrants as street-level operatives. Many states have passed laws and regulations targeting staged-accident rings, and some have formed taskforces, hired special prosecutors and deployed other resources to shutting down the rings.

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Property-casualty insurers

Fraud is a serious problem, half of all property-casualty insurers say. Insurance Research Council-Insurance Services Office (2002)

The amount of fraud their company has experienced has increased over the last three years, more than one of three insurers say. Nearly half say fraud has stayed the same. Insurance Research Council-Insurance Services Office (2002)

About 11-30 cents — or more — of every claim dollar is lost to “soft” fraud (smalltime cheating by normally honest people), nearly half of property-casualty insurance companies say. Hardcore scams steal only a small fraction of that money. Insurance Research Council-Insurance Services Office (2002)

Only one of four insurers thoroughly investigate cheating on insurance applications. Even fewer insurers investigate insiders such as employees and agents who commit premium fraud. Research Council-Insurance Services Office (2002)

More than two of five property-casualty insurers have increased spending to fight fraud over the last three years. More than four of five insurers have formal anti-fraud programs. Insurance Research Council-Insurance Services Office (2002)

Nearly three of five insurers say their efforts to combat are only moderately effective, or lower. Research Council-Insurance Services Office (2002Fraud-control spending by property-casualty insurers rose from $200 million in 1992 to $650 million in 1996. Insurance Research Council (1997)

98 percent of property-casualty insurers have a fraud-control program, and most insurers have special investigation units. Insurance Research Council (1997)

Half of property-casualty insurers have broad, public-information programs directed against fraud. Insurance Research Council (1997)

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