In recent months, there have been several prominent news stories involving notaries around the country.  Examples include the following:

“Identity Theft: The new way to rob a bank” (CNN) – Emphasizes role of fake notary stamps

“Outlaw notaries making mark amid real estate crisis” (The Sacramento Bee)

“It took 90 minutes to ‘steal’ the Empire State Building” (NY Daily News) – Another fake stamp story!

"Auto title fraud rampant among illegal immigrants"   (Columbus Dispatch)

(Copies of articles are available upon request)

There is bound to be more of this type of negative publicity in the future.  We’ve all heard the horror stories and seen the glaring headlines about fraudulent mortgages, greedy loan officers, and bogus title companies ripping off people who claimed to be unaware of what they were signing. What we haven’t heard, though, is anything about the NOTARIES involved in the process in these fraudulent mortgage and auto title documents. 

Every mortgage in the United States is notarized by someone, along with a number of important documents that are part of most any loan package.  The same is true of vehicle titles in Ohio. Undoubtedly, some notaries were unwitting accomplices who thought they were just fulfilling their notary responsibilities.  However, there are also certainly notaries who violated their oath by fraudulently notarizing documents and/or not ensuring that the signers were aware of what they were signing.  Where are the stories about these supposed guardians of the public trust, and their role in the frauds? Will any of these headlines crop up in Ohio? Stay tuned…

Yes! As predicted, we now have our own headlines in Ohio!

SOS Brunner calls for a Federal investigation of notaries public in 23 states, including Ohio! See this story under the "Notary News" tab on the home page.