Can Robo-signed documents be completely done in an Abobe Photoshop with scanned notary stamps and scanned signatures?
We are all used to the idea of robo-signing being a process of signing and notarizing a stack of documents in a single day without any review of its content, similar to DocX pipeline operation of signing mortgage related documents.
If we would only look at the efficiency of the signing pipeline (for now, bypassing legal aspects of signing the documents), there is a better cost effective way for signing and notarizing the documents. With the age of digital recording, the document has to be presented in the recordable format, which means that the document has to have all attributes for the recorder to record the document in the county records. These attributes are broken down in parts, just like a document itself can be sliced into multiple elements. Documents would consist of parts that are constantly repeated, such as, authorized signatures and notary stamps and notary signatures.
Let’s now imagine a work flow that would combine the different elements of the document to create new documents using Photoshop. For example, authorized signor “Joe Smith” would always be on the Assignment of Mortgage document as VP of MERS paired together with notary “Jane Smith”, which would conveniently be located off the first page of the assignment. Additionally, there is also the notary acknowledgement testifying that the signor is an authorized signed under the perjury of the law. All of these elements can easily combined on the alonge or the 2nd page of the assignment.
You can clearly see the economic benefit of preparing the assignments with signatures through Adobe Photoshop. It would take 2 people (signer and notary) to go though 100 paper assignments in 1 day, while photo shop approach would most likely triple the productivity at the lower cost. I know it’s not legal and fraudulent and possibility only my theory.
Evidence. I struggled with the thought in the beginning, but a few times I stumbled on some documents that really back up this theory. For example, Notary stamp distortion carrying through a number of documents. In other words, the notary stamp was scanned initially with some distortion and the same scanned version used in other documents as well. See Image 1. I don’t think the actual notary stamp is that damaged to make it into distorted shape. Some documents we stumbled on have an interchanged notary portion with different signature portion. In other words, the notary acknowledgement was testifying for one signor, while the signature states a different name and signature. See Image 2.
Proof. How do you find out whether the assignment was prepared and signed correctly and legally? My initial thought is to file for request for production of the notary ledger copy to verify that every notarization was entered as an entry in the ledger in for every document notarized. If the assignments were photo shopped, the notary ledger / log most likely do not exist, nor is Notary aware of which documents are being notarized.
I welcome all comments on my theory. I suspect that majority of document are correctly prepared, signed and notarized…How do you catch those who bypass in-person notarization?