by AZREIA Editorial Team | May 1, 2023 | AZREIA, Chicago Title Agency, Fraud, Newsletter
By Jill Bright | Chicago Title The U.S. Secret Service has recently observed a sharp increase in reports of real estate fraud associated with vacant and unencumbered property. Criminals are impersonating real property owners and negotiating the sale of properties that...
by AZREIA Editorial Team | Mar 30, 2023 | AZREIA, Chicago Title Agency, Newsletter, Ransomware
By Jill Bright | Guest Author Diana Hoffman | Chicago Title In January 2023, the FBI revealed it had secretly hacked and disrupted an international ransomware gang called “Hive.” Hive was one of the most prolific cybercriminal groups that extorted...
by AZREIA Editorial Team | Feb 27, 2023 | AZREIA, Chicago Title Agency, Fraud, Newsletter, Title
By Jill Bright | Guest Author Diana Hoffman | Chicago Title SCENARIO: The Title Officer in California received an order for an owner’s title policy regarding the sale of a home for $470,000 from an independent Escrow Officer he works with regularly. He performed...
by AZREIA Editorial Team | Feb 1, 2023 | AZREIA, Chicago Title Agency, Escrow, Newsletter
By Jill Bright | Guest Author Diana Hoffman | Chicago Title SCENARIO: The Escrow Manager in Utah opened a sale of a vacant lot for $385,000. The buyer was a real estate investor paying cash. The buyer/investor never met the seller in person. All communications were...
by AZREIA Editorial Team | Dec 31, 2022 | AZREIA, Chicago Title Agency, Newsletter, Title
By Jill Bright | Guest Author Diana Hoffman | Chicago Title Our National Underwriter was working on title clearance for a pending transaction. The transaction involved an apartment building in Atlanta that recently underwent a remodel, which resulted in a...
by AZREIA Editorial Team | Dec 1, 2022 | AZREIA, Chicago Title Agency, Cybersecurity, Newsletter
By Jill Bright | Guest Author Diana Hoffman | Chicago Title The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has put together a comprehensive website that contains tools for victims. One of these tools is a Ransomware Guide which includes a comprehensive...
by AZREIA Editorial Team | Nov 1, 2022 | AZREIA, Chicago Title Agency, Newsletter, Title
By Jill Bright | Guest Author Diana Hoffman | Chicago Title Eight sale transactions were opened at different closing locations throughout the state of Arizona, so none of the offices knew of the other transactions being processed. The documents were supposedly signed...
by AZREIA Editorial Team | Sep 29, 2022 | AZREIA, Chicago Title Agency, Newsletter, Uninsured Deeds
By Jill Bright | Guest Author Diana Hoffman | Chicago Title Uninsured deeds are always a cause for concern. Recently one of our commercial escrow officers was working on the sale of vacant land. The buyer was purchasing the property to develop into multifamily...
by AZREIA Editorial Team | Sep 1, 2022 | AZREIA, Chicago Title Agency, Cryptocurrency, Newsletter
By Jill Bright | Guest Author Diana Hoffman | Chicago Title Cryptocurrency is a digital currency in which transactions are verified and records maintained by a decentralized system using cryptography, rather than by a centralized authority. Cryptocurrency leverages a...
by AZREIA Editorial Team | Aug 1, 2022 | AZREIA, Chicago Title Agency, Newsletter, Wire Fraud
By Jill Bright | Guest Author Diana Hoffman | Chicago Title All out-going wires sent from our company’s escrow trust accounts must be approved by two authorized bank signers before they are sent to our accounting dept. We require two approvers to review the wire for...