Property fraud alert

Property fraud — involving crooks who steal homes from people using fake deeds and other trickery — has become such a thriving industry that the hucksters now have their own corps of lawyers, mortgage bankers, notaries and realestate brokers, city officials said Monday.

“Perpetrators operate as an organized gang,’’ Finance Commissioner Jacques Jiha told a City Council panel.

The hearing also drew city Sheriff Joseph Fucito and victims’ advocates, including the Legal Aid Society, which called for a crackdown.

The sheriff ’s office has a total of 671 open investigations into allegations of deed fraud, with the most, 326, in Brooklyn.

There have been only 17 arrests so far, at least partly because of the complexity of the cases, authorities said.

“It’s a form of organized crime . . . [with] a very complicated type of prosecution,’’ Fucito said.