HOUSE UP FOR FORECLOSURE? DON’T FALL FOR “TRUST ME” SCAM

March 8, 2008

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Are you posted for foreclosure? If you are, and you’re trying to avoid filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, don’t, no matter what you do, fall for the so-called “Trust Me” scam. How it works: You go online, looking for help. You fill out a form on a web site promising to get you re-financed, so you can stop the foreclosure and stay in your house.

You get a phone call, and in talking with the representative, they say you don’t qualify for a re-finance, but they can “Guarantee Approval” of another way to save your house. Long story short: For a fee, you sign over the title to your house to a trust, and then are given a “beneficial interest” in the trust.. The scammers or “investors” catch up your house all right, but you sign a lease as a tenant, with the trust your landlord.

And the trust and the lease are written in such a way that if you pay your rent late, or don’t mow the yard, or do anything, you lose your interest in the “trust” and you find yourself being evicted. The entire scam is based on getting you to sign over the title to the house. The rest is easy. Don’t do it.

To read a special report on Foreclosure Rescue Scams by the National Consumer Law Center, go to: http://www.nclc.org/issues/foreclosure/content/ForeclosureReportFinal.pdf

House Up For Foreclosure? Don’t Fall For “Trust Me” Scam