She Thought the Notary Public was an Identity Thief!

What did the title company tell the borrower?

Did the borrower understand what had had been explained to her?

Did she understand that she had picked the time and location for the Notary Signing Agent to meet with her? Giving this information to the title company to be passed on along with the documents to a NSA they had worked with in the past and trusted?

Does she understand that the law requires (scroll to page 19) a notary public to verify the identity of all people for whom they notarize a document?

Notaries Public are one of the mainline defenses against mortgage fraud.

I received a call on last Thursday, from a signing service that I do a lot of signings for. They needed me to do a closing the next morning, early, just a few miles away, meeting place was a local bank.

I accepted and that was the beginning of a pure nightmare.

The documents arrived via email that night-great start so far. No chasing the documents.

I noticed that the lender was a branch of the same bank were meeting at, in another state.

Everything is set and I arrive a few minutes late the next morning due to some road construction.

Upon entering the bank, I notice it is someone's birthday as the place is decorated inside and out. I approach one of the two tellers and inform her I am there to meet a Ms. Jane Doe. The teller sort of giggles and says, "That is her." while pointing over other customers' heads.

The teller states that they are confused as to what is going on and offers us a place to meet. She says, "We don't have a place with a couch."

I tell her we need a desk or table and some chairs to get these documents signed.

She says, "We have a great conference room. Jane, if you will, turn the lights on when y'all go in."

This is a small town and a small bank. The conference room is nice and nestled in the corner of the building, on the other side of the entrance doors.

We introduce ourselves to each other while the teller is talking at us. Then we go into the conference room.

I get my briefcase open and get out my notary seal, venue stamp and information stamp (It has my printed name, county of election and commission expiration date.) I get out my notary journal and two ink pens, the documents and my business cards.

I ask Ms. Doe if she has a copy of her DL for me to send back with the documents. (This a request made by the majority of title companies and is not only required to prove to them the borrower is who they say but to also help avoid the laundering of money by and for terrorists.) She looks really surprised and says no. I explain that we need to send a copy back with the documents or the loan will not fund and show her the document that says this.

Ms. Doe asks if I have access to the copy she sent in to the loan officer. I tell her no and that this copy and the documents are going back to the title company.

Without asking her, she hands me her drivers license, I go over the bottom line of the HUD1 Settlement Statement, asking her if the amount of $22.00 (not the correct figure) is the correct amount for her to be receiving.

Her reply is in the affirmative.

I hand her her copy of the documents, explaining for her to go ahead and read over the documents while I fill out my notary journal. I also hand her a business card.

She asks, "So, you are a notary public?"

I answer, "Yes, ma'am."

She asks if I work for the title company. My answer is simple, "No, ma'am. I work for myself. The title company hired a signing service and they contracted with me to ensure your documents are signed and notarized properly."

We continue on, her reading over the documents and me filling out my notary journal.

When I get finished, I hand her drivers license back to and state that maybe the bank would make a copy of her drivers license for us.

She takes them from me, stands up saying, "Okay." Then she asks, "If we had met at my home and I did not have a copy, what would you have done?"

I asked did she have a scanner on her computer. She replied she did not. So I answered that I would have had to have taken a photograph with my digital camera. (This was a requirement of the contract with myself and the signing service--no copy take a picture with a digital camera or your cell phone.)

She sort of "humphed" and went off into the bank.

In 5-7 minutes she came back, stopped just inside the door, leaned over, snatched her purse off the table and then jerked my business card off the table. She marched back off into the bank.

I waited fifteen minutes. I stuck my head out the door and could not see her. I was not going to walk off from her documents or my journal, so placed them and everything else back into my briefcase and went in search of her.

I saw her in an office, alone, on her cell phone and walked over to the doorway. She was not talking and appeared to be on hold. I spoke, "Ms. Doe, is there a problem? I need to know as I have other signings scheduled for today and need to stay close to on schedule."

No response other than she looked at me as if I was insane for speaking to her.

I try again, "Ms. Doe, I generally do not wait more than thirty minutes to begin a signing."

At this point she literally stuck her nose up and turned her head away from me, and a female bank employee came up behind me, she began speaking, without ever introducing herself to me.

Employee, "So, you are a public notary? Why do you have those documents?"

Me, "I am a Notary Public. I have the documents because I was hired by your employer to ensure they were properly executed."

Employee, "You have no right to have those documents. Give them to me NOW. We have a real NOTARY PUBLIC and a loan officer on duty here."

Me, " Ma'am, I can not give you these documents. If Ms. Doe decides not to sign them, I can not leave a copy with her." (This is standard practice and part of the standard contract between a NSA and signing service.)

Employee, "You have no right to have those documents, they belong to us. Gove them to me NOW." (Note, most of the documents are not lender documents but title company documents-this employee clearly did not understand the mortgage process herself.)

Me, "They belong to a branch of your bank in another state. I can not give them to you."

Employee, "I just spoke to the originating loan officer and he said for you to give them to me." (In six years, I have never had a loan officer give instructions over the phone without asking to speak with the NSA to reiterate those instructions directly to me.)

Me, "He did not tell me to give them to you."

Employee, "We do NOT use public notaries to close our loans."

By this point the employee is blocking my route to the exit door. She looks around me and asks Ms. Doe just what is wrong with the documents, are the fees correct or just what is wrong. Ms. Doe snubs her the same way she did me!

The employee is so distraught she forgets she is physically blocking my exit and I take the chance to go to my car.

I call the signing service and speak to Tommy. He says that the lady says I was rude and was trying to steal her identity.

He had heard the conversation after I found Ms. Doe, as he was who she was on the phone with. He had been explaining to her that it was a requirement for me to obtain a copy of her drivers lissence to return with the documents and that I could not leave the documents with her or the bank.

While he was on the phone with her, the bank was calling the title company and the title company called Tommy on another line and told them simply, "You are off the Jane Doe closing."

While we are talking, I start my car and head home. Title company calls Tommy back and says for me to turn around and take the documents back.

I asked who is going to pay my print fee. No travel fee requested, just my print fee. Title company informs no one is goig to get a dime for this.

Tommy is a great customer of mine and so I do go back. I ask him to call and tell the bank I need a receipt for the documents before I will leave them.

He agrees and does so . I walk back in and the same employee walks out of her office (all the inside walls for this bank are glass.) She writes me a receipt on a letterhead, printing everything but her name-it is in cursive in the body of the receipt and the signature and not legible.

Tommy calls my cell as I am leaving the bank and tells me that the bank employees were looking for Ms. Doe to go ahead and close the loan for her. They could not find her. Someone noticed her car was in the parking lot and then they found her in the restroom, crying with the door locked!

I have gone over this in my head and with several other NSAs over the weekend. No one can understand what happened.

Tommy knows my work well, and he knows I was not rude to this lady, or anyone else. That would serve no purpose but to ruin my business. A business I love and take great pride in.

The bank employee was mis-informed and only added to the borrower's confusion.

All they had to do was ask for my id. I would have been happy to have shown her my drivers license, my commission, my Tribal ID, my business license, my notary bond and my E&O policy. She never asked. They also could have gone online to the Tennessee Secretary of State's website, and searched to see if I was truly a notary.

Of course, she sort of lost credibility when she accused me of trying to steal her identity. Really, I mean I met her at a bank. She decided on the time and the location. I had her loan documents.

I have done many closings in the neighborhood she lives in. One of her neighbors has been friends with my husband for over 45 years. I sot of dread going to visit with him, but will not hesitate the next time we have the time and inclination to do so.

I have no idea what this woman, or the bank's employee, were thinking. I do know I did nothing wrong and have since closed more than a few mortgage refinances for this same national bank.

Note-All names, dollar amounts, and times/dates have changed to protect the identity of the BO, SS, TC, and Lender.