FORECLOSURE RESCUE SCAMS

There are many types of so called foreclosure rescue scams. Here are three examples:

1) Phantom Help scams:
Under this plan, the home owner is led to believed they are being helped by the "rescuer" who poses as someone who will work on the homeowner's behalf to call the lender, negotiate terms, do paperwork, all of which the homeowner could do him or herself. Then the homeowner runs out of time becuase important deadlines may be missed and the "rescuer" leaves the homeowner and basically runs off with the money. The homeowner could lose the home and sometimes it would have been preventable if the homeowner had gotten the right help.

2) Bait and Switch scam:
The homeowner is led to believe they are signing a refinance document or some other document but in fact they are signing over the deed to someone who may not even be at the closing and who the homeowner has never heard about. Deeds are actually forged in this scenario. And the homeowner is tricked into transfering ownership of the home for a pittance.

3) False bailouts scam:
The homeowner is led to believe that he is giving up title for a short period of time till he gets back on his feet. So he will stay in the home and be a renter. Known as the lease buy back scheme, the homeowners are "told that surrendering title is necessary so that someone with a better credit rating can secure new financing to prevent the loss of hte home." But the end result is that the homeowner never gets to buy back the home because they can never meet the new terms and the "rescuer" takes the home and all the equity.