Victims Of A Foreclosure "Rescue" (Growing Scam)

[RamboLiberal]

Source: CBS News

Annie Stephens, a 70-year-old grandmother, has lived in her Atlanta home for 40 years.

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But after suffering a stroke, she found herself unable to work — and unable to pay her bills.

"Once you get behind, it's hard to catch up. Hard," Stephens said.

Within days of foreclosure, Stephens was overwhelmed with ads promising instant relief, an easy way out.

They proved anything but. She says a con artist claiming he'd help refinance her home instead stole it, then stripped away tens of thousands of dollars in equity.


Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/07/13/cbsnews_investigates/main3057178.shtml

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I listened to Clark Howard explain this scam tonight on the radio. As he said, how can these scum "look at themselves in the mirror?"

[flvegan]

1. Any link to get the backstory?

[TexasLawyer]

2. Here's a link:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/07/13/cbsnews_investigates/main3057178.shtml

[flvegan]

3. "...convinced to transfer the deed..."

That's what I was looking for, thanks.

People really, really need to understand the very basics of the title to real property. I feel so very, very sorry for folks that are taken in by this. There almost needs to be a Miranda about talking to a real property lawyer before signing the vesting rights of your real estate over to a straw party or "savior" as they're seen.

[RamboLiberal]

4. Thanks for catching my oops - fixed it on edit

eom

[Up2Late]

5. I have two questions, 1) How were they Foreclosing on a house she had been in for 40 Years...?

...and 2) If Georgia has "laws" and regulations governing this practice (as the says in the CBS Video), how did this happen in Atlanta Georgia? WTF? :wtf:

Question one (1) relates to, why would she still be paying on a Mortgage? Most mortgages are 30 years! Did she take out a new loan on her house to pay her medical bills? If so, this "reporter" needs to go back to reporting school, because that's an important fact he left out.:mad:

If you want to see something really shocking, check out this website, where you can search your zip code, or even your neighborhood, and see all the "Bank Owned" and "Auction" properties in your town or area: <http://www.realtytrac.com/home.asp>

Here's the link to the free search, make sure you do a "Map View" search after the first one and zoom in if you get the message that there are too many properties to show them (that usually happens for most neighborhoods): <http://www.realtytrac.com/freesearch.asp?a=b>

It should look something like this, here's a zip code near me: <http://www.realtytrac.com/Mapping/Mapping/DetailsMap.aspx?criteriaType=zip&criteriaValue=30060&code=>