Stranger steals the deed to multimillion-dollar North Carolina mansion in a shocking real estate scam
In a stunning case of real estate fraud, a Raleigh, NC man is locked in a bitter legal fight to reclaim his multimillion-dollar mansion after a stranger swiped the deed to his property — and now he's being told to pay thousands just to get his own home back.
Craig Adams, a local dentist who owns an 8,300-square-foot home in an exclusive gated community in North Raleigh, was blindsided when he found out that the deed to his house had been transferred to someone named Dawn Mangum without his consent or knowledge.
The residence is also now for sale, asking $4.25 million.
"Found out that she had filed a false warranty claim deed against this house and basically tried to steal [it]," Adams told ABC 7.
Adams first learned of the fraudulent takeover when his homeowner's association contacted him, asking if he had sold his property.
Mangum had reached out to the HOA, requesting gate access to the private community where the home is located — raising alarm bells that something wasn't right. When Adams dug deeper, he discovered that Mangum had somehow filed paperwork with the Wake County Register of Deeds, listing herself as the new owner of his property under the "Dawn Mangum Trust."
What was even more shocking? The paperwork was approved and officially recorded without anyone verifying if it was legitimate.
"There's no effort to authenticate the validity of the change of deed. Nobody verifies the notary. Nobody verifies who owns the house that's trying to be transferred to a different owner," Adams said.
He quickly provided evidence that the home was his, including mortgage and tax records, but the county officials told him their hands were tied.
"They say there's absolutely nothing they can do to reverse this," Adams said. "Once it's filed, their only solution is that I have to go hire a private attorney, and the first quote I got was about $8,000 to file a civil suit against this woman."
So how did this happen? North Carolina law doesn't require county Registers of Deeds to verify the legitimacy of the paperwork they receive, nor do they have to check whether the notary is valid or if the person submitting the deed has any legal right to the property.
In fact, the law allows these offices to process thousands of documents daily without digging deeper, unless there's clear suspicion of fraud — something that wasn't flagged in Adams' case, according to WRAL .
"The biggest concern is ... we're so vulnerable!" Adams said. "Anybody, I could go down and put this warranty deed, find out where you live and I could presumably take ownership of your house. It's that easy."
Mangum, the woman now listed as the owner of Adams' house, claims the entire situation was an innocent mistake. She says she believed the property was abandoned and in foreclosure, and thought she was within her rights to claim it.
"My thing is not to take anyone's home but to find abandoned property and restore it," Mangum texted Wilson. She now claims she's willing to return ownership to Adams and amend the paperwork.
However, Adams still faces a costly and frustrating legal battle. Despite Mangum's claims of cooperation, Adams will need to hire a lawyer and take the matter to court to reverse the fraudulent transfer.
Meanwhile, he's hoping his ordeal will lead to changes in state law, making it harder for scammers and opportunists to pull off this kind of fraud in the future.
"The biggest thing that needs to happen is the laws from the state legislature need to come down to the register," Adams said. There needs to be "a simple set of checks and balances, authenticate the document, authenticate the signature, authenticate who owns the home."
The Wake County Sheriff's Department is now investigating the case, and the county's Register of Deeds office has pledged to assist in any way they can, but they remain limited by state law.
In a statement, the office said that while they sympathize with Adams, they are legally required to record any deed that meets basic statutory requirements. They don't have the authority to remove a document without a court order.
The Register of Deeds office also pointed out that they offer a free fraud alert system, which notifies homeowners when any action is recorded under their name. Unfortunately for Adams, the fraudulent deed didn't include his name, so no alerts were triggered.
