Business Services Industry

Only major reforms will combat I.D. theft

Valuation Insights & Perspectives, Fall, 2007 by John Kopcha

The article, "When Appraisers Become Prey," in the 3rd Quarter issue of Valuation attempts to provide some solutions to the problem of identity theft.

As a business owner and Illinois Certified Residential Appraiser in good standing, and as a victim of identity theft, I believe a more realistic description of this problem is required. The Chicago Tribune did an exhaustive five-part series, which is a must-read. You can access this series at: www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/broadband/chi-mortgagefraud,0,1052574.htmlstory.> Within a month of my I.D. theft, we knew exactly who the people were that were perpetrating this fraud and theft due to our own investigation and the help of multiple informants. All law enforcement was given this information, to no avail.

The Valuation article mentions contacting the FBI. Sounds reasonable to call them, right? It's their responsibility to go after criminals who facilitate millions and millions of dollars of fraudulent loans that are crossing state lines. Wrong. Try calling the FBI, as I did. The duty officer will not give their name but will listen to your story and tell you that they will file a report with the pertinent investigative section. Two years later and north of $250 million in fraudulent loans, I have heard nothing from the FBI nor law enforcement.

My thieves use a phony company and a P.O. Box with my name and license number. I know of no appraisers who use a P.O. Box. One would think that a lender would be leery of a P.O. Box. They don't care.

Another article in the issue spends an inordinate amount of time telling you how to protect your signature. Guess what? You can't. Most lenders require a copy of your current license submitted with the appraisal. Once a thief has a copy of your appraisal, they can scan the signature, convert it into a bitmap, and use it how they wish. That is, if they even bother. Usually they put in any handwriting they want. How is this possible? Nobody checks, especially at crunch time (the review process and funding of the loan). Some reforms are seriously needed.

The Illinois Department of Professional Regulation Mortgage and Appraisal Divisions seem to be woefully underfunded. As of this writing, it is my understanding that these divisions have only one investigator trying to sort out thousands of fraud cases. Additionally, they have no subpoena or arrest powers. These are the professionals in this field, not the FBI. Give some authority to the pros. Maybe the Illinois legislature needs a little lobbying. I suspect this holds true nationwide.

I could probably write a book about this matter with many suggestions on how to improve the mortgage and appraisal process but it would probably fall on deaf ears due to gridlock in Congress and apathy.

Anyone wanting to contact me with any questions or comments is welcome to do so.

John Kopcha

glock9mm@netoptioninc.net

Illinois Certified Real Estate Appraiser

Valuation welcomes feedback from readers. Send letters to the editor, including name and contact information, to Adam Webster, managing editor, at awebster@appraisalinstitute.org. The magazine reserves the right to edit submissions.