Members of Maine's new legislative commission on preventing deed fraud say they hope to find ways to prevent the crime and help victims who fall prey to it.

Democratic State Senator Henry Ingwersen, who sponsored the bill that created the commission and is chairing it, says there are many different kinds of deed fraud, but the most common type in Maine seems to be "seller impersonation." That's when a fraudulent seller is able to get a fake deed for a property, often vacant land, sell it to a legitimate buyer, and walk away with money.

"We have a lot of elder people in Maine, and I'm very concerned that elder Mainers, who have held onto this land as kind of a nest egg for themselves, could be inadvertently losing that," said Ingwersen. "And so we've really got to help folks and find

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