Customer " ... wanted to know what was going on and he was going to call the police because we were running a scam and proceeded to tell me what the SS told him."
I would NOT have told the person not to call the police. It could be the initial investigation of a landslide or the early stop to multiple identity thefts. From your thread, I don't know the whole story. What worries me: this may very well be a scam to collect identification information and then SELL it. Particularly when the "person" working for the SS pushes so hard as to say the customer will lose their home if they don't do this. Who knows how many other unsuspecting individuals have provided this information. Maybe it isn't the SS, but that individual, collecting the information to SELL because s/he sees it as more profitable and already has a purchaser. IF the lender or title insurance company WANTED the SS to have these documents plus their customers' thumbprints, they would have given the SS copies.
Note, not to scare, but because I read about too many real estate scams: If YOU collect and forward this, there's a trail that you provided that person with the non-public personal identification, which enabled him/her to commit identity theft. I no longer do that much signing work, but before I accept any copies of identification documents, I always verify the title insurance company or lender requested it IN WRITING in the signing package that I receive (CMA). Thumbprint - someone trying to create fraudulent deeds with cut-and-paste signatures, notary seal, and, for good measure, add the seller or borrower thumbprint on the deed then e-record; i.e., no "original paper" document exists, just the e-filed and e-recorded copy. Not new, this has been done and older Florida real estate people will remember the thousands of vacant lots owned by snowbirds, holding to build their retirement dream home, that were sold and re-sold multiple times before the "true" owners discovered it. |
