I recently read two interesting blog posts about bankruptcy hijacking, which is reportedly taking place in California. Apparently the scam works as follows:

John Doe files a bankruptcy petition. This filing is part of the public record. 

Jim Hijacker downloads a random, registered deed from the register of deeds website. He changes information on the deed to make it appear as if his property actually belongs to John Doe. 

Jim Hijacker then uses John Doe's bankruptcy filing to stop the foreclosure on his house. 

In the meantime, John Doe and his bankruptcy attorney must deal with a motion for relief from stay filed by the lender. Keep in mind that this lender actually wants to pursue Jim Hijacker, not John Doe. However, the lender is lazy and simply files its motion as opposed to verifying that John Doe is the proper debtor. 

You can read more about it here.

I doubt that this practice will become very common in Illinois. California's foreclosure process is very different than the Illinois foreclosure process. By the time a property is about to be sold at a sheriff's sale in Illinois, there has been a court process that (hopefully) has verified the identity of the lender and the borrower. In California, there is little to no judicial process, and the party being initially defrauded with the bogus deed is the officer conducting the sale. 

While it is possible that this could happen in Illinois, it would be rather difficult to make happen given our judicial foreclosure system. In any event, it is always good to be aware of potential scams.