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Posted by  JanetK_CA on 6/25/19 2:39pm
The seasoned pros on this forum (like VT_Syrup) already know this stuff, so this is mostly for Marissa and any newer folks.
This type of situation - most common with commercial, & construction loans, contracts, etc. - is where we need to take every precaution to prevent the possibility of misuse of certificates. Specifically at issue is where there are two certificates, e.g. one for husband, one for wife, and a notary who typically leaves space after writing in the signer's name and doesn't specify the pronouns (he, she, they) by underlining, circling, crossing out or whatever.
It would be fairly easy for someone to remove one of those certificates, add the second name to the first cert, and attach the second cert to a different document the signer(s) have either never seen (with a faked signature) or perhaps signed in the tc office, but the notary never witnessed the signature(s) on it and doesn't have it in his/her journal. Is this likely to happen? No. Could it happen or has it happened in the past? Undoubtedly - and those situations can lead to notary nightmares...
To prevent this, I look for things like bar codes, page numbers, pre-printed document names on certificate pages, etc., that tie them all together. If none of those exist, then I'd probably add cross-references on both the signature page(s) and notary certificate, depending on the circumstances.
One more thing to look out for... I had a great example just yesterday with a couple who were each signing in multiple capacities. On one document, there were a total of 9 signatures, followed by 10 notary certificates... (Yes, I counted both.) Fortunately, they were the right certificates, all the pages were numbered and the document name was preprinted at the top of every page. Why were there 10 certificates? I concluded that the last one was a backup, for "just in case", as there was no name printed into that certificate, unlike the others. I didn't need it, so I ended up removing it from the package. However, to figure that out, it of course meant matching the number of signatures for each person (different for each) with the number of certificates vs. just filling them all out.
As I'm sure most on this forum already know, completing a blank certificate that's not attached to a document is a big no-no. It's an invitation for fraud. There's no way we can ever know how much fraud we may have prevented by simply taking a few extra steps when carrying out our duties to make it more difficult for someone who is trying to either cut corners or do something illegal.
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