Last night I was watching a report on CNN about a new foreclosure scam taking place in Florida. They featured a couple that had become several months behind on their mortgage and ended up in foreclosure. After being served the foreclosure papers, a private investor approached them with a way they could save their home. The offer was simple; the investor would pay their back payments and get them out of foreclosure. Also, he would also give them a year to get caught up and pay him back. Additionally, during the year, any appreciation that occured in the property value would be shared 50/50. OK, not so bad so far, right?
Well, after the one year the couple was unable to live up to their end of the agreement. Their home consequently became the property of the investor. They were allowed to continue to live there so long as they made monthly rent payments. Of course, these folks lost their home so someone had to be blamed. Who could be blamed? You guessed it, the investor. This big bad investor that saved these folks from foreclosure and gave them a year to get caught up was now being described as a scam artist by the CNN reporter. The fact that the couple featured in the story had not been making their mortgage payments regularly for nearly two years was simply glossed over. What is the CNN solution here? Free houses with no mortgage payments?
Here is a warning from the FBI about some other kinds of foreclosure fraud that is of a different nature
http://www.scamfraudalert.com/f139/fbi-warns-foreclosure-scams-san-bernardino-county-9673/
Is this a scam? Did this investor take advantage of these people or give them a second chance? What do you think? Post your thoughts by clicking on comments below.
My main website is www.christianmoney.com
James L. Paris
I'm was looking for something totally different on Google when this caught my eye. My mom's friend had this exact thing happen to her. I said it sounded very fishy to me, but the friend took the bait and now is homeless.
More info needs to get out about these Scams
Posted by: Tracie | August 14, 2007 at 12:20 AM