I found an interesting post on a popular blog, The Consumerist, about popular mortgage scams to watch out for.  With the economy in bad form, more and more scams are going to emerge.  Some popular mortgage & lending scams are the following:

• Builder Bail-Out Scams: In this scam, individuals seeking funds for distressed or halfway completed projects will approach investor groups for funding. Unbeknownst to the investor, no additional work is actually performed on the property and the investors and/or lenders are left with incomplete or completely uninhabitable structures. Yuck.

Some other mortgage/lending scams that are popular include,

• Foreclosure Prevention Scheme—In this scam, desperate homeowners who are about to lose their homes are approached by individuals who claim they can prevent the house from going into foreclosure.  These scams take many forms so its difficult to describe just one example. Does anyone have a story to share about one of these particular scams?

• Elderly and Immigrant Identity Fraud—This is an old, played out scam yet its growing in popularity, particularly in “reverse mortgages.” This type of scam has to do with stealing an individual’s identity. Elderly and non English-speaking individuals get their identities stolen by scam artists who then use them to “straw buy”‘ a property.

Any other stories anyone would like to share about lending fraud?  Please share as these stories help us all.

Posted by Corey Curwick on March 20, 2009