By Lisa A. Tyler
National Escrow Administrator

The seller came in person to the Chicago Title office to pick up his proceeds check. He was asked for identification; he said he did not have it with him. Chicago Title would not give him his check without proper I.D., so he left. This concerned the escrow officer and prompted her to look closer at her file to ensure the seller really was the owner of the property. Unfortunately, her suspicions were correct. She successfully tracked down the real property owner and confirmed he did not sell his rental property. Read "THE jig was up" to find out how the imposter almost succeeded and find out how this could have been prevented.

Some things you just cannot make up! Read "STING operation" to learn how Alamo Title worked with a local detective to uncover a crime; the perpetrator was arrested when she showed up to sign closing documents at a competitor title company. 

Criminal organizations are realizing more benefits of ransomware attacks from increased revenue streams of these syndicates. Simultaneously, ransomware variants have grown. Reports from government agencies indicate there are as many as 100 variants. Many variations have been used over and over again. Some variants may be more harmful than others, but they all demand a ransom. In the February 2022 issue, we described ransomware as a program that encrypts data found on a computer and/or a network. This is referred to as a crypto malware and is the most commonly used definition of ransomware. Read about other types in "RANSOMWARE types."