# Is whohasmynote.com a scam? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 16, 2011, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-whohasmynote-com-a-scam/592955 "2011-08-16T21:25:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-whohasmynote-com-a-scam/592955/21 "2011-08-18T13:30:47Z")
Hmmm. Loooks like they quoted him $1100 to $1300 for the initial service. The lawyer they farm things out to charges $1100, and then they estimated another $800 in recording, filing etc fees. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-whohasmynote-com-a-scam/592955/22 "2011-08-18T13:40:04Z")
Missed the edit window. To be clear, the $1100 for the lawyer is a separate, non-included cost vs the first fee I referenced. Also, they claim that filing fees vary by county. And, finally, that you have to buy title insurance towards the end of the process. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-whohasmynote-com-a-scam/592955/23 "2011-08-18T13:43:50Z")
But, if you walk away from a $200,000 mortgage, their fees are chump change. ---
**Author:** ![IAmNotSpartacus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@IAmNotSpartacus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IAmNotSpartacus)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-whohasmynote-com-a-scam/592955/24 "2011-08-18T13:57:23Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Technically you wouldn’t be stealing your house. You’d be stealing the money the bank lent you. Technically, theft involves the _illegal_ taking of another’s property. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-whohasmynote-com-a-scam/592955/25 "2011-08-18T13:58:17Z")
I think Kayaker is right here. Anywhere, further update, allegedly there is robo-signing in the file my friend sent to the guy. The assignment papers moving the note from the original lender to the current servicer, Bank of America, are notarized in California, while all the other papers are from other states, and apparently Mortgage Electronic Registration Services (MERS), the company that needed to sign these papers, is in Virginia. The assignment was in July 2011. I thought robo-signing was a practice that would have been eliminated after the first big kerfluffle about it in October 2010 but this: [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/07/18/national/main20080533.shtml](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/07/18/national/main20080533.shtml) : suggests that it was still an issue last month. The whole thing seems surreal. I had always assumed bankers and lawyers are smart than they’re showing themselves to be. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-whohasmynote-com-a-scam/592955/26 "2011-08-19T05:46:43Z")
> [@IAmNotSpartacus](#): > > Technically, theft involves the _illegal_ taking of another’s property. I just learned something else on the theft front. My buddy had PMI, so I’m thinking the bank already got paid off by whoever sold it the PMI. So, if I parse it correctly, if my buddy managed to ‘take’ the title away from the bank, the actual loser is the insurance company issuing the PMI. I think this stuff really might make my head explode. ---
**Author:** ![brendon\_small](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brendon_small/32/17101_2.png) [@brendon\_small](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brendon_small)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-whohasmynote-com-a-scam/592955/27 "2011-08-19T16:46:00Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > [SNIP]…The bank hasn’t been able to provide the paperwork that shows the mortgage was tranfered from A to B to C while my BIL was still paying A. And it’s not a matter of being able to provide “originals” materials, it’s an issue of there not being a clear record of transfer…[SNIP] This is something that happened to us once on a much smaller scale. We had an AT&T phone. I was about 20 days late on the payment, being a poor student, but I had intention of paying it on Friday when I got paid (sorry AT&T, rent and heat come first). Also, it was the end of our contract and we already had new phones, so I called and said “shut them off” and then explained I would send my final payment. Little did I know that T-mobile or someone had purchased AT&T. I called every customer service line I could find - no one had any record of my account because we were no longer customers. When AT&T became AT&T again, everything was even weirder. 4 years later I went to buy a house, and they mention this old bill. I called AT&T, explained that I never paid it, and they told me they couldn’t help because I don’t have an account. The final end was to pay the $80 or whatever to AT&T with a letter coming back from them saying it should be removed from our credit report. Truthfully, we paid the $80 because we knew we owed it at one point and it never got paid proper, but we could have argued that we were not obligated to pay it to any company now, and that the collection mark on our record should be removed since the company says we have no account and owe no money, but also that would have slowed down buying the house. Brendon ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-whohasmynote-com-a-scam/592955/28 "2011-08-19T16:50:58Z")
Hmmmm. Well, my friend still hasn’t been served, so I suppose I’ll keep researching. It appears that the Ohio case law on this matter is still evolving rapidly. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-whohasmynote-com-a-scam/592955/29 "2011-08-19T16:55:42Z")
It should be noted that so far, state courts (Michigan is a notable exception) have generally held that MERS can initiate foreclosure proceedings, while federal courts have generally held that it can’t. > [@Mr.Slant](#): > > …apparently Mortgage Electronic Registration Services (MERS), the company that needed to sign these papers, is in Virginia. Nitpick: Mortgage Electronic Registration _Systems_. ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-whohasmynote-com-a-scam/592955/30 "2011-08-19T17:06:06Z")
I think this is one of those cases where a loophole works a few times, but once it becomes popular judges are going to change their mind. Maybe for the right price you can get someone to break into the bank and destroy all the original titles. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-whohasmynote-com-a-scam/592955/31 "2011-08-19T17:20:54Z")
> [@Gedd](#): > > I think this is one of those cases where a loophole works a few times, but once it becomes popular judges are going to change their mind. > > Maybe for the right price you can get someone to break into the bank and destroy all the original titles. Honestly, I see this thing from two sides. If I am to believe that every title MERS has touched is unenforceable, which is what some people are suggesting, then I have to conclude that the asset those titles represent could cease to have value. That would be great, on the individual level, for my friend, but from my perspective I have personal bank accounts (with piddly balances) and business bank accounts (with the working capital I need to use to sustain operations) that I suspect would be at risk if all of that value went away. I’d purchase secondary insurance on my business checking account if I could find it, but then I might just wind up finding myself owning a broken bank account and a broken insurance company. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-whohasmynote-com-a-scam/592955/32 "2011-08-19T17:22:11Z")
> [@Gedd](#): > > Maybe for the right price you can get someone to break into the bank and destroy all the original titles. I think somebody already paid for that, and MERS gladly obliged.. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2011, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-whohasmynote-com-a-scam/592955/33 "2011-08-20T14:19:14Z")
Is there a “statute of limitation” on debt? If nobody tries to collect on a mortgage for X years, because of all the cracks it’s fallen through, can a person legally consider themselves to be free of it? Is it considered abandoned? The most insidious part of the whole robo-signing fiasco in the link - that legitimate title might be called into question years later. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2011, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-whohasmynote-com-a-scam/592955/34 "2011-08-20T18:23:46Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Is there a “statute of limitation” on debt? Yes, except on revolving credit arrangements (like a line of credit or a credit card). In most states, the statute of limitations for a mortgage foreclosure action is between 3 and 6 years. It’s [5 years in my state](http://archive.flsenate.gov/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0000-0099/0095/Sections/0095.11.html), although the statute begins to run from the date of default, not from the date of the last payment. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-whohasmynote-com-a-scam/592955.md?page=1)