My partner owns a Villa in Florida and was recently contacted by a law firm stating that they are acting for a number of clients who were victims of Quit Claim fraud and had done a search for the name that property had benn fraudulently signed over to. They emailed her a copy of Quit Claim and it was such an obvious forgery - The witnesses were name William Antrim and William Bonney (both aliases of Billy the Kid) and what was supposed to be her signature was in the same handwriting as the both supposed witnesses and also the Notary. The Law firm offered to lodge and affidavit on her behalf on receipt of a deposit of 2.500 dollars. The Law firm are a Bone Fide law Firm but I can find no record of the Notary Public supposedly from NYC. The Law firm said that FBI are investigating the case and gave the telephone number of the agent dealing with it. She has tried several times to contact him but only gets and out-of-message. She has left numerous messages for him to contact her either by telephone or email but he hasn't bothered.
As the Quit Claim is so obviously fraudulent does she have a claim against the Osceola County clerk of court for negligence or can she resolve the matter by asking him to overturn the Quit Claim as she doesn't have enough funds for a legal case.
Any Ideas ? Please. She id frantic with worry.

Some kind of scam. Certainly a title search would have been done by settlement attorney at time of purchase. Unless purchaced with her own funds a mortgage company would have required title insurance as well as the title search. You friend may or may not have also purchased title insurance for her self.

Check settlement forms.

Scam, scam,scam.

Hello s:

Your partner needs to hire a criminal attorney TODAY, and STOP talking to a ANY of them. Tell her NOT to send money to the law firm jerks.

excon

PS> Did I mention that she should keep her MOUTH SHUT??

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by hkstroud

Some kind of scam. Certainly a title search would have been done by settlement attorney at time of purchase. Unless purchaced with her own funds a mortgage company would have required title insurance as well as the title search. You friend may or may not have also purchased title insurance for her self.

Check settlement forms.

Scam, scam,scam.

---

Well no - she bought the property years ago without a mortgage which is presumably why she was targeted.
Just seems wrong to me that you have to spend thousands to reclaim a property you already own. Land of the free and justice for all.

I still assume a title search was done. This is the reason for doing one. Not sure that I follow you post completely. Was property transferred to her with Quit Claim deed? Or is some one now claiming some prior Quit Claim deed was invalid. Is some one now claiming title to property? Adverse possession laws could also come into play. How long has she had possession of the property?

Before your friend does anything, she needs to contact the County Recorder's office and see if that Quit Claim Deed had indeed been filed against her villa. Also, you need to have her contact the NYS Bar Association about this ASAP. As If this is a for real scam at a for real law office, they would sure like to know about this.