It's even easier than this when you don't have to include outsiders. Jarrod has reported on appraiser. Identity theft so that it isn't necessary to have a dishonest appraiser in the loop. Notary seals have been lifted off the Internet to use on fraudulent documents as reported in fraudulent deed filings in Florida and Denton County Texas.

In the situation mentioned above, I think the thief was most foolish in using a quit-claim deed instead of a Warranty Deed. All the components are availible. I wonder if we will someday see legitimate abstractors accused of filing bogus reports when it was only their name and form that was used?

A paper trail that leads to someone else isn't of much use to law enforcement. An attorney in Florida was implicated in this type of scam because his notary seal ended up on a fraudulent document. He didn't seem to understand how someone could have taken it from the vault where he kept it. There were thousands of his seals available on the Internet that could have easily been clipped, cleaned and pasted onto a new document.