Identity Theft Happens.

He assumed it was meant for him because it came from the exact same insurer which handles his homeowner’s coverage – an amazing coincidence, but a coincidence nonetheless. Upon opening it, he discovered a welcome letter. He telephoned me to inquire about why a welcome letter would come, when he had already received one two years ago when we wrote the policy.

It turns out that an individual posing as the “new” owner, (we’ll call him Joe), visited a local agent and paid cash money to start a policy on Al’s home!! But he neglected to have the mail re-routed to a different address.

Al immediately contacted me to inform me about this situation. I was able to see information about the new policy on our computer system because of the (beneficial) coincidence that the Identity thief happened to choose the same insurance carrier as Al. We both spoke to the agent who initiated the new policy for “Joe”. The agent indicated that “Joe” said he got a great deal on the home at auction, and added that the former owner had a tax lien which forced him to sell at auction.

This is clearly a concocted story, (Al has owned the property for forty years, FORTY YEARS!! – and never missed a tax bill). By the way, in this part of LA, the homes now go for close to a million dollars. He long ago paid off his mortgage.

I immediately ran a Title report which indicated that Al officially owned his home. I perform this service for Al because he does not regularly use a computer, (when one reaches eighty years of age one doesn’t feel the need to be on the web so much). There was some comfort in the report, but not much considering all the bizarre events. The LAPD declined to take any nature of police report.

Two weeks later, a letter comes to Al’s home from a large National bank thanking “Joe” for his Home Equity loan application. “Joe” is assured that his loan application will receive the utmost care and proper handling.

Al called me to ask if I would run another title check. I did, and it was there in black & white, “Joe” now owned Al’s home. The Title transfer was listed as a “gift” deed.

This is where things stand at the moment. Identity Theft coverage is included in the policy I wrote and the insurance carrier is responding to the claim. Al has a family attorney who has also become involved. The LAPD still shows no interest in taking a report. The California Dept. of Real Estate is likewise not interested. The Title Insurance Company which processed the transaction says they didn’t process the transaction.

Access these resources provided by the FTC.

As more developments arise, I’ll update the status.