Foreclosure Scam Season

Earlier in the month, we got a call from a former client of a foreclosure scam. Hopefully, sharing this story will help anyone reading this blog realize the enormity of the criminal activity that goes on in the foreclosure relief industry. Only by being aware and knowledgeable can you hope to avoid all of the unscrupulous individuals and companies that are only trying to harm you.

Again, we recommend that you should do all you can to stop foreclosure on your own, and never use a third party to get involved unless you have already tried saving your home yourself. This story should be an example of why we recommend this.

The victim of the scam was facing the possibility of sheriff sale in early March, 2006. He contacted a number of possible foreclosure assistance companies and was finally "sold" by one of them which was run by a certain woman. To begin the process, he was required by the scammer to send $2,000, as a "retainer" for future services, including loss mitigation and locating a lender. The victim sent $2,000, by certified funds.

After being called and given daily updates on the status of his file, the victim believed that the scammer was working hard for him. The scammer said she was contacting the bank, trying to stop foreclosure for the client, and attempting to work out an affordable repayment plan. The client believed all of this and trusted the scammer to do all of the work for him, even though he kept receiving phone calls and letters from his lender and their attorneys, and the property seemed to be slipping further into foreclosure.

Once the property reached the end of the line and was going to sheriff sale, the scammer had the nerve to contact her victim and try to wring more money out of him. Horribly, she convinced the victim to send her another $7,000, via wire transfer. According to her, she was going to take the $7,000, fly to the corporate office of the client's bank, hand them the $7,000, and establish a repayment plan on the spot.

If this sounds utterly incredible, it should. The client ended up sending the scammer a grand total of $9,000, over a period of a few months. And what did he get out of his $9,000, investment?

If you guessed less than nothing, you would be correct. The sheriff sale went through. The property was sold back to the lender. The client was publicy humiliated by being physically evicted from the property in front of all of his neighbors. The $9,000? It has another story. In fact, a couple of stories.

Story I. When the client finished wiring the second payment of $7,000, and the payment plan was not established, the victim reasonably asked what had happened to his money. The scammer first told him that the employee who had been entrusted with depositing the $7,000, had never returned from the bank and had walked off with all of the money.

The only problem with this story is that a wire transfer does not require a physical deposit of the funds. It was transferred directly into the scammer's bank account. This story didn't last long.

Story II. The scammer told her victim that the money had been stolen from her office, as a result of a burglary. This also proved to be false, as the scammer could not keep her facts straight, and, most blatantly of all, no police report was filed.

After spewing out lies and giving her client the run-around, the scammer finally stopped communicating at all. The client would call and not be spoken to, have his phone calls go straight to voicemail, and would not be called back. The last attempt was for the victim to send a letter via Certified Mail, stating all of the facts of the case and that he was demanding his money be returned to him. He even offered to accept partial payments of the $9,000, paid over a number of months.

This letter was returned to the client unopened. The scammer never even bothered to pick up the letter from the post office and refused to sign for its receipt.

And what happened to the $9,000? Where has it gone? What has it been spent on? These might be impossible questions to answer... except for one fact: on the scammer's voicemail, she states that she will be out of town in Las Vegas for the holidays.

How many expensive meals can be bought in Las Vegas for $9,000? How many hands of blackjack? How many Cirque du Soleil shows?

How many times will the scammer be able to insert another quarter into a slot machine, all because she tricked someone into sending her $9,000? Thirty-six thousand times. She will have thirty-six thousand chances to win the jackpot in Las Vegas. And if she loses all thirty-six thousand times, she can just continue scamming desperate homeowners whose trust she gains.

Don't let your holidays be ruined by some scammer who takes your money, lies to you until the sheriff evicts you from your home in front of your neighbors, and has a grand old time in Las Vegas spending your money, while you're trying to find some way to make the holiday season cheerful again.

Just take responsibility, learn how to stop foreclosure yourself or work with a third party without being screwed, and give yourself the gift of continued homeownership this Christmas season. No one else will be able to give you that gift, and some people, as sad as it is, will even try to take away the gift.


About the Author
ForeclosureFish.com provides homeowners with resources to stop foreclosure on their own, with or without the assistance of a third party. We maintain a website at http://www.foreclosurefish.com/ to help homeowners learn about the foreclosure process.