Title Pirates: How Scammers Use Quitclaim Deeds to Steal Homes

The Perfect Scam

AARP

True Crime, Aarp, Fraud, Society & Culture, Scam, Crime, Bobsullivan

4.5 • 980 Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dreama and Larry’s house is undergoing renovation after a tree fell on it. Since they cannot live there during the repairs, they set up security cameras to monitor the property. To their surprise, they notice a couple repeatedly visiting the house. Alarmed, Dreama and Larry register for a free alert system that will notify them of any changes to their property records. Just two days later, they receive an alert. Unbeknownst to them, Michelle Cherry and Victor Rodriguez have filed a quitclaim deed that will quickly and easily transfer ownership of their home. A quitclaim deed is typically used for transferring properties without a sale, such as from a parent to a child. However, in this case, criminals exploit it to steal from unsuspecting homeowners. Will Dreama and Larry be able to reclaim their home and help catch these “title pirates”?

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week on the perfect scam.
0:04.0	Yes, you did lose something because you lose the feeling that your home is safe.
0:08.0	You lose the sanctity of your home.
0:10.0	The fact your emotional bond to it is forever crushed.
0:14.0	You don't feel like taking your grandchildren back there or your friends
0:18.0	because they've heard this story now for a year and you're upset all the
0:22.7	time so you lose a lot when this happens to you it's literally the worst thing that happened to you
0:29.5	is using your house this way it's like a sinkhole you don't even have the dirt okay everything is
0:34.0	gone welcome back to the perfect scam Everything is caught.
0:41.2	Welcome back to The Perfect Scam.
0:43.0	I'm your host, Bob Sullivan.
0:48.1	Today we're going to talk about pirates.
0:49.9	Home pirates, anyway.
0:52.8	Or at least what a Florida state attorney has called,
0:54.2	titled pirates.
0:56.0	What are they?
1:03.2	I'll explain shortly, but I also promise you this episode comes with just a little bit of homework that you can do,
1:05.8	which only takes a few moments and it's free.
1:16.7	And well, after we're done here, I bet you're going to want to complete this homework assignment right away. Tampa homeowners Larry and Dreama Bilby learned the hard way what title pirates are recently when they noticed someone sneaking around their home as it was undergoing extensive
1:22.9	repairs after it had been crushed by a tree. One disaster after another for this unlucky couple.
1:29.3	Let's find out how Larry and Dreamer got into this place in the first place.
1:33.3	Before the Pirates, on the 4th of July 2018,
	...

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