Here's a warning for those of you out there looking to get out of a possible foreclosure. It appears scammers are preying on people needing mortgage help. The details:
Interviews with legal aid offices and law enforcement officials around the nation indicate the problem of so-called “foreclosure rescue scams” has spread like wildfire, neatly paralleling the downturn in the mortgage market.
There are many variations on the scams, but they all boil down to two types. There’s a simple fee-based racket, in which the criminal offers to help the homeowner stave off foreclosure, collects an up-front fee and then disappears. But the more lucrative scam involves seducing homeowners into complicated transactions that allow con artists to steal equity in the house or walk away from the closing table after netting thousands in phony payouts.
It never ceases to amaze me the depth some people will stoop to in order to make a buck.
I recently wrote a detailed article on this practice and foreclosure scams are spreading like wildfire, nearly paralleling the downturn in the mortgage market. Since no doc mortgages, this is becoming the biggest scam going around. The IRS stimulus check scams look small by comparison.
Posted by: Andy | September 30, 2008 at 09:40 AM