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It begins with a flyer on your front doorstep, a roadside sign with a local phone number, an ad on TV. “Stop Foreclosure Now!” “We guarantee to stop your foreclosure.” “We stop foreclosures every day. Our team of professionals can stop yours this week!” They promise quick access to your bank or lender, and a way out of foreclosure and losing your home. They seem almost too good to be true, especially if you’re a beleaguered homeowner clinging to your house.
Almost always they are too good to be true. Welcome to the world of the foreclosure rescue scam. Just as epic levels of fraud helped cause the subprime crisis, now, in the wake of the greatest housing meltdown in at least a generation, thousands of scheming, manipulative foreclosure relief swindlers are preying upon desperate homeowners unschooled in consumer finance and looking for help. The FTC, for example, reported 7,927 complaints on “mortgage modification and foreclosure relief” last year; in 2008, it had one.
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