A situation that touches on a similar sort of matter occurred last Friday in San Mateo County. 

An elderly couple had been into the Recorders Office the day prior and returned Friday because they were being hounded by creditors, refinance agencies and foreclosure services about their home.  Phone calls, knocks on the door and mail were coming to them at all hours and they were visibly flustered. 

The county staff, inexperienced as they are, failed to help them, so I poked my nose into the situation and got to the heart of the matter in minutes.  My  initial suspicions was a failure by the trustee to  list a parcel number or address correctly on a foreclosure notice.  Upon finding a copy  of the Notice of Default which was referenced on their Caldwell Banker printout, I was proven wrong.  (For once) the Trustee had done their job, listing the deed of trust and proper borrowers (not our couple) and APN number correctly.  The Assessors Parcel Number (APN) of the elderly couple and the APN of the subject land in foreclosure were similar and off by a  mere digit.

A private database contractor had transcribed the APN from the public records wrong onto a private database.  The private database firm then resold the wrong data to many other firms, including mortgage and foreclosure-remedy companies.  These firms, in turn, contacted the poor couple who were, in no way, in foreclosure.  Yet, they were worried sleepless about the condition of their home, by this error.  Nobody at the data firm was taking responsibility, saying only that they had obtained the information from public records at the Recorders Office. 

Sad really.   The lady reminded me of my grandma; and nobody messes with granny.  Dirty SOB's.