Monday's Fraud Story

This one involves Tax Liens.
Not the kind of get rich quick scheme you see on late night TV.
This was fraud right from the start!

Here's some clips from the article:

"Jesus Duran Aguayo, 52, real estate broker, and Sofia Aguayo, 52, real estate agent, husband and wife, both of Monterey Park, California were booked in the Los Angeles County Jail on $1.4 million bail in connection with a “squatter” scam in which the defendants victimized elderly and other homeowners by unlawfully taking possession of roughly 100 houses, and subsequently renting out the property and keeping the income for themselves."

How could they do that you ask?

"First, the Aguayos would troll Los Angeles County, California looking for homes for which back taxes were owed. They then conducted surveillance on such homes to find out if they were occupied. If they determined the homes were unoccupied, they paid the delinquent taxes. They then filed fraudulent quit claim deeds that purported to transfer the property between themselves without the legal owner'’s knowledge or consent.

Having used fraud to lay a phony legal claim to the property, the Aguayos put fences around the home, made repairs, then rented the house and kept the money. When confronted by the rightful owners or their family members, the Aguayos in some cases lied or forged documents in an attempt to keep possession of the homes, the court papers allege. The investigation uncovered about 100 instances in which the Aguayos attempted to perpetrate some form of this fraud."

"A CBI agent'’s court declaration, submitted in support of the search warrants, details seven cases in which the Aguayos perpetrated the alleged crimes. One especially egregious case involves a 78-year-old Los Angeles homeowner named Richard Dee. He told investigators that when he was living temporarily in a nursing home, he forgot to pay property taxes on the home he inherited from his mother."

"In Dee'’s absence, the Aguayos perpetrated their fraudulent scheme to take possession of his home without his knowledge. Dee'’s neighbors believed he had died and that the house had been sold. Neighbors told investigators that all of Dee'’s “furniture and personal belongings, including old family photos and his mother'’s paintings,had been tossed into a garbage bin in front of the home. Dee'’s 1967 red Ford Mustang also disappeared, neighbors told investigators, and a chain link fence was placed around the house."

Moral of the Story:
There are a thousands ways for someone to take advantage of you.
One of them is by being negligent about property taxes.
That was the key that opened the door in this instance.

Be careful out there.