Members of Maine's new legislative commission on preventing deed fraud say they hope to find ways to prevent the crime and help victims who fall prey to it.
Democratic State Senator Henry Ingwersen, who sponsored the bill that created the commission and is chairing it, says there are many different kinds of deed fraud, but the most common type in Maine seems to be "seller impersonation." That's when a fraudulent seller is able to get a fake deed for a property, often vacant land, sell it to a legitimate buyer, and walk away with money.
"We have a lot of elder people in Maine, and I'm very concerned that elder Mainers, who have held onto this land as kind of a nest egg for themselves, could be inadvertently losing that," said Ingwersen. "And so we've really got to help folks and find solutions."
Ingwersen says the goal of the commission is to gather more information on the prevalence of deed fraud in Maine, find ways to prevent it from happening, and help those who have been hurt by it. An important part of that, he says, is educating the public and raising awareness about these kinds of real estate scams.
The commission held its first meeting on September 29 and will meet three more times between now and December and eventually produce and submit a report on its findings.
