FRAUD, how to protect from it

[Will Barnard]

It has been brought to my attention recently that a large company got burned on 2 or 3 recent occassions from a perpetrator of fraud.
Here is the story.
Perpitrator purchases property under false pretense by forging a deed and having a notary and escrow in cohoots. Perpetrator then sells property (which is not really theirs to sell) to victim. victim does get title insurance but is now in lawsuit with title company to get them to pay and process is in at 8 months so far to date.

I asked how this could be done and it was explained that it is not hard to imagine somebody getting on word, creating a deed, executing it with a phony signature and having it notarized, then selling the property with forged deed to victim.

So my question to BP Nation is: How do you, me, and others as buyers protect ourselves from this happening?
I always read the escrow instructions and see who is getting the wire. If an REO, wire should be going to the bank and not a person or assset manager. What other precautions and steps can we take to prevent us from becoming victims?

[Don Konipol]

This type of fraud problem has become so prevelant that we have instituted new internal regs. We now only close at a Stewart Title Co. home office. We will no longer use fee offices or any other title company. We have had good experience with Stewart, they are the most thorough, and the very rare times a fraud occurs they do not hide behind their attorneys in an effort to screw the insured. My experience with other title companies has been nowhere near as good, my experience with fee offices has also been unsatisfactory,