Nominally, but in my hometown, I've actually seen a shithead landlord pull fraud on exactly those terms on some pliable marks — some immigrants who didn't feel secure in either understanding the law nor in seeking legal remedy. Basically the guy sold a house to someone on contract-for-deed, and just quietly took all of the recurring payments that were supposed to pay off the contract and ... pocketed them instead of recording them as paid. Essentially he asserted that they were years behind on paying off the loan, when in fact they had paid it in full. Almost classic "indentured servitude".

It's a gamble, plain and simple — the landlord was hustling, and gambling that the tenants would both be too poor (lawyers cost money or at the very least cost time away from work), and simply too afraid to file suit (because a lot of people come from places where if you do try to sue, gangsters come to your house and loosen your teeth a bit).

Don't get me wrong - you are technically correct in what you say. But all theft is inherently cheating against the grain of what's technically legal/illegal. Having something on public record makes con jobs like the aforementioned vastly harder to pull off.