I had a colleague who was running a mortgage fraud scheme and somehow I ended up owning a $450,000 house. When I told the bank this was obviously a fraud and that they fell short in their due diligence to validate not only my identify but my income, the response I got was 'too bad' and that there was an expectation I pay the mortgage (2100 per month) until it was sorted out; which could take a year or more.  Failure to pay could be foreclosure and a big scar on my credit rating?! Adding insult to injury, when the fraudster was confronted and she somehow managed to get a new mortgage in a different name, the same bank charged me a 3 month interest penalty to get out of the mortgage! After a month of calling a dozen bank employees at all levels, it was under the threat of me taking it to the local paper that I got my money back. Needless to say, my already low opinion of banks bottomed out.