A North Carolina woman who became the center of national attention for filing a fraudulent deed on a Raleigh mansion has been arrested.
WRAL reported Dawn Mangum’s name was listed on a deed recently filed with the Wake County Register of Deeds for a property that is owned by Dr. Craig Adams, a dentist. Adams did not know Mangum and only learned what was happening when his homeowners’ association informed him that Mangum was trying to gain the access codes for the gated community where he lives.
Mangum, who attempted to list Adams’ home for sale at $4 million and later claimed that she thought the house was abandoned, surrendered to police on a charge of attempting to obtain property by false pretense. However, North Carolina law does not allow the Register of Deeds to void Mangum’s fraudulent paperwork, which was approved without verification. Even if she is convicted, Adams needs to go through an expensive civil court process to correct the record and legally regain his deed.
Photo: Police mugshot of Dawn Mangum
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It is or should be, negligent and dereliction of duties by the county NOT to check on registering falsified or not RE ownership documents.
Yeah they just wipe their hands clean and life goes on for them. Another day another dollar smh governor should step in but that wont happen. Justice for Dr. Adam!
I hope she gets at least 20 years in prison for that.
Whichever department approved this should be responsible to pay Mr. Adams expenses to straighten it out.
I totally agree! This should not have happened and is by no means his fault! Thank goodness the HOA notified him.
Who notarized that deed?
A register of deeds in North Carolina is not responsible to check or verify anything. It is their responsibility to register/record whatever is presented to them. It is up to others to determine the validity/veracity of the registered documents. I believe this is the same for most or all other states.
That’s why title insurance is good to have.
Yep, i would think the title insurance from when the Dr. bought the home would be in place for as long as he owns it and voila, back to normal. The other title company that failed and allowed the fraudster to proceed with the purchase should be audited heavily and penalized severely! Unbelievable…
The Register of Deeds Office should certainly have ‘checks and balances’ to prevent fraudulent recordings. Every effort should be made to ensure the party claiming ownership; is indeed, the owner! In the event the ROD Office erred, the State of NC should have a law in place for the nullification of that deed. In no way should the rightful owner have to spend money to correct a problem they didn’t create in the first place, that would be completely illogical and just plain WRONG!
Don’t tell me they would arrest him or refuse to process the same paperwork she filed to correct the situation.
Does North Carolina not have title insurance? If so, wouldn’t that be covered under the title policy? I apologize in advance as I am unfamiliar with North Carolina real estate laws.
@Tina This would not be covered by his title insurance. Title Insurance guarantees that you will have a title clear of any past issues. The coverage the title “up to” the date that you purchase the property. Unfortunately, things that happen after you own the property are not insured over.
The state wouldn’t carry title insurance. The original owner of the property who got scammed may have title insurance from when he purchased, though I doubt they would cover something like this after the original transfer. They usually only pay on PREVIOUS unfound title occurrences.
I do agree this is insane. It takes some big balls to attempt a scheme like this. I wonder if they will find out a notary colluded with her. Unless the agent faked the notary too? The agent had to know she would get caught, especially if he was her former client.
Most states allow anyone to record liens or deed transfers. I’ve walked deeds and settlement packages through recording before and no questions asked. I agree, this should be changed considering all these brazen criminals now in housing schemes.
She isn’t an agent. Her “deed” didn’t even have the owner’s name on it to transfer it into her trust so flags on his name etc wouldn’t have triggered. I’m gonna speculate that the notary was fraudulent, too. Every step she took was to commit fraud and steal a big, beautiful, and expensive house that the Dr had listed 2 months ago.
If the property is indeed in foreclosure like she claims it was, this is not the steps to take to own it. Once it appears for sale, a bank or other corporation has already secured a deed or had a deed of trust in place. These foreclosure sites are usually pulling MLS data and other data and making claims to get people to sign up for a fee. The property may not actually be in foreclosure or sometimes even on the market and not foreclosed. I always have to be wary when looking up there. Unless you actively work foreclosures for multiple sources, it’s hard to determine if it’s truly in pre-foreclosure proceedings and abandoned like she is claiming.
Right now, I have a prelist foreclosure that is truly abandoned but the deed has already been wrapped up months before getting the order to begin the slope of listing the property. Title search etc is already completed long before it ever goes on the market. Lawyers have everything buttoned up long before a buyer or interested party sees it.
She’s going to have to a lot to explain to the judge her reasons behind thinking this was a good idea. I haven’t read anything as a solid or valid reason that she could just deed a property to herself with no exchange of funds. She set out to steal big and it’ll cost her some freedom and time away from her 3 kids who are also the victims in her scheme. I hope the Dr. can get his deed corrected quickly. My state would have just had to file a correction deed if not just marking her deed as fraud and calling it a day.
I agree with Geoff!
NC needs to change their laws on how title is conveyed . This is not a logical or responsible way of handling this . I’m not a North Carolina resident but it sounds like changes need to be made and made fast so others don’t try to copy this fraudulent behavior.
It’s expensive and time consuming for tax paying citizens who own property. The county recorder needs to be more efficient on the way they handle these issues.
There is no safeguard in many states. You should check yours. The municipality is required to record the deed. Crazy huh? In NJ it is that way.
So infuriating to see yet another criminal thug think they’re “entitled” & “owed stuff” to just steal things that upstanding citizens work extremely hard to earn and pay for honestly. I hope she gets life without parole, and the county – who allowed this to happen – should pay for the legal bills in addition to a significant sum in damages for pain and suffering to the true home owner.
This article is wrong. It is not expensive to petition to have a fraudulent deed voided. Also, part of her conviction in criminal court could be a court ordered voiding of the deed, with no cost to the rightful owner.
This should be a Federal issue past by the Senate and House signed by the President of the US that titles be verified before filing. it would not take a clerk 5 minutes to call previous owner or a closing attorney to verify
Ignorant thief! Get a job animal!
Even if she genuinely thought the property was “abandoned” what makes you think that you can just see an abandoned property, file a deed to claim it, and then sell it and pocket the money???? There’s no way I’m buying that excuse.
This is why you see all those commercials to protect your deed from criminals so you don’t lose your home or property. Of course there’s a fee for this protection or insurance. Law abiding, responsible Americans pay way too much for insurance as it is and shouldn’t have to pay to protect the deed on property they own.
I agree something could be done at a local level to ensure this doesn’t happen until proper legislation is passed.
States and better yet, National policies and laws should be put in place to protect property owners and prevent this from happening. In the meantime, there needs to be stiff penalties for criminals and low life thieves like this and they need to enforce stiff mandatory minimum sentences that may deter others.
Our county here in SWFL allows homeowners to register for a notification from the clerks office in the event ANY paperwork is filed on our properties. It’s a wonderful service and it’s free! I’m a Realtor and I advise all my customers to do this shortly after all Closing documents are filed with the county… perhaps that NC county could adopt the same. .
Debbie – reading the Risk Alert Enrollment states it doesn’t stop the fraudulent recording from happening but notifies you when (after the fact) it does & gives the owner an opportunity to verify if it’s accurate or fraudulent. The damage will have been done or am I missing something?
Georgia has a system you can signup for where they will notify you if there is a pending change in the title of the property. I got the form from the county court house.
That is not right. The thief should be doing the deed correction as she is the that third to steal the property.
Our laws seem to be outdated and backwards. This is 2024.
By the LOOKS OF HER
I wouldn’t Trust Her with
ANYTHING!!
!”CRIMINAL MINDS”
People like This are RUINING our Real Estate Business!! Ugh 😤
Typical usual suspect. She looks exactly like I’d expect her to look.