How to steal a house in London

I think the point is how do they know the John Smith on title is the same John Smith that signed the discharge?

 

If its about ID, the RTA in NSW is now making it easier to have your identity stolen.
They now mail your ID to you.... NON REGISTERED POST.
I still have yet to receive my licence in the mail - its been 3 months - i got a new one created at an older RTA that still prints on the spot, but the one i did at "Service NSW" is still yet to show up. Nice huh, considering your drivers licence is worth 70 ID points.

 

When I applied for the loan I had to sign the loan documentation. Then I had to sign the mortgage discharge. It is possible for the bank to undertake a signature verification process. I would not assume that was done in my case.

That said, a few years ago, one of the super companies refused to roll over my super to another super account of mine because my signature on the roll over form did not match my signature on the super application form. I had to go in person to get them to roll over.

I know the new WA system has improved fraud detection but I would say it is still possible for a house to be fraudulently sold. If a person could fake 100 points of ID, including photo ID, then IMO it would be possible to sell somone else's house and retain the proceeds.

Four fraud attempts thwarted

Mr Murphy said there had been four attempts to fraudulently sell property between October 2012 and February 2013.
"Those new measures are certainly a lot more rigorous than what was in place in the past," Mr Murphy said.
"And they appear to be working because there have been four attempted cases which have been thwarted.
"They've been overturned and people have been caught out. So, in those cases there could potentially have been further frauds but the strength of measures prevented them."​

WA auditor-general satisfied with new real estate regulations

Would it be possible to lodge a cavet on the title to stop it being sold?

 

That's not good

 

This is why I say it is sloppy work.

"The government promised to fix the loopholes that allowed alleged false authorisation documents signed with a child-like signature and witnessed with a stamp purporting to be from the High Commissioner of Lagos Nigerian justice system, to secure a sale,'' Hyde says.​

The REA was contacted by an owner purporting to be overseas and the documentation had a stamp from Nigeria and the REA didn't know he was being scammed? How many more red flags did the agent need?

Property scam revealed: How Nigerian scammers sold a Perth house without the owners' knowledge

 

in NSW you are protected against this, I would be surprised if each state did not have this.

 

This is the sad truth

I think there is title insurance available now. My conveyancer offered it to me but I didn't buy. I have a mortgage on house anyway so would be impossible sell it without bank knowing

 

How do they stop identity theft? In the original story, the fraudstar had a false passport that was not identified as being fake. In Australia, with that and a utility bill with a current address, you could open a bank account. With the passport, a utility bill and bank statement, you could identify yourself as an owner. In a case of identity theft, I don't know how a REA would pick up on the fraud.

I also did not know in NSW, the Proof of Identity Checklist is not a legal requirement.

Fraud in real estate

You are hoping that if fraudsters contact a REA, the REA will pick up on the attempted fraud. However, there are warning signs.

Warning signs
According to the Guidelines, agents should be cautious in situations where no financial institution, as mortgagee, is listed in the second schedule on the certificate of title for the property. This is because mortgagees (such as banks) have stringent security measures in place. Criminals are more likely to target properties that are wholly owned by the owner so as not to disrupt those security measures.

Other warning signs of such fraud include:

• a recent change in contact details that are only provided with instructions to sell a property;
• transactions that involve people or documents located overseas, especially countries known for scams;
• a request for funds to be deposited into a bank account different to the account normally used;
• urgent sales;
• new email addresses; and
• comments by the seller that incentives will be provided to the agent if the sale is quick.

​

In the case of two cases of fraud in Perth and one in Canberra, the REA and conveyancers ignored the warning signs. It is unlikely but it appears it could happen.

 

My older brother is in the US and his Green Card was sent out as an unregistered letter, and lost in transit. No doubt someone helped themselves to it, and this isn't an entirely uncommon occurrence.

The problem is that he then had to spend another $450 (US) or so to get a replacement. The immigration service held him responsible for the loss despite him never receiving in!

 

Indeed. It is a step which might help avoid theft of property in this manner though...

Indeed. It has also long been a problem that Aus and UK do dd/mm/yyyy and USA does mm/dd/yyyy. If you have someone with a date of birth such as 01/05/1980 it is all too easy for it to get typed in as 05/01/1980 causing hassles down the track.

Yup another flaw in the system. So many "rookie" omissions that are surprising in this day and age.

 

I am not actually surprised that there are so many "rookie" omissions. The land transfer system in the past was all paper based. No internet, no email, no electronic transfers. It was all paper and cheques. The system was slow and a bit cumbersome but it worked really, really well.

The problems started when the agencies decided to convert the systems to electronic systems. All they did was take an existing, manual, paper based system and replicate that system electronically. No thought was given to whether this was a good idea. The old system worked, so it would even better if it was made electronic, right?

It was after some conversion to an electronic system that allowed houses to be fraudulently sold and transferred in Perth. Before that, what the scammers did would not have been possible. Now the agencies are desperately scrambling to retrospectively correct the flaws they programmed into their system. I know they have made progress and potential fraudulent sales have been prevented by the changes to the systems but I'm not convinced that the systems are "bullet proof" yet or that they ever will be.