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There Is No RIGHT Way to Do the WRONG Thing!
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By Lisa A. Tyler
National Escrow Administrator
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This month's contributing author is Diana Williams, corporate escrow administrator. She has contributed two stories about notaries; "Never Buckle Under Pressure” and "There Is No RIGHT Way to Do the WRONG Thing!” Both stories involve mobile notary companies which appeared on the Company's approved notary list. These individuals were willing to risk their relationship with our Company and their notary commission. Both notaries back-dated loan documents and one was even willing to notarize a document where the signers did not personally appear in front of her.
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These were FNF approved mobile notary companies, which begs the question: What kind of training and screening do these outside companies make their notaries go through? Heck, it makes one wonder if these notaries even knew what they did was wrong. Just because a company or individual is shown on our approved list doesn't represent what kind of screening process or experience level they have. Review the "Notary Do's and Don'ts” article for some basic tips on performing notorial duties and selecting BancServ as your mobile notary provider.
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As you will learn in this edition of Fraud Insights, if a Company approved notary is selected instead of BancServ, it is the employee's responsibility to make sure the approved notary has not been removed from the approved list before scheduling each and every signing. Approved notaries are regularly removed from the list for expiration of commission; expiration of errors and omissions coverage and for acts of misconduct.
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Fraud Insights Quiz
Our monthly Fraud Insights quiz has been a huge success! Thanks to all of you who have participated. Rather than publish the answers from the September 2009 quiz, we've published the names of last month's gift card winners.
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Never Buckle Under Pressure
When a loan package was returned from a Company approved mobile notary, the escrow officer began to review it to ensure the documents were executed properly when she noticed the documents were back-dated. She contacted the notary who admitted she buckled under the pressure of the mortgage broker and allowed the documents to be back-dated by the borrower, in her presence, and notarized them as such. Sadly, the unacceptable notary conduct didn't stop there.
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There Is No RIGHT Way to Do the WRONG Thing!
Our lender customers expect the settlement agent to ensure documents are delivered and executed by the borrower in accordance with Regulation Z. If we select an outside notary to conduct the loan signing, that liability does not go away. It is never acceptable to allow documents to be back-dated.
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Notary Do's and Don'ts
Two of the very basic don'ts were committed in this edition's two stories. Although the notary statutes vary from one state to another there are still some universal notary do's and don'ts which must be followed.
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