Lease-back or Repurchase Scams is on the rise and knowing what to lookout for can save you a lot of stress and heartache. Be cautious if someone offers to pay your mortgage and rent your home back to you.

This is sometimes called lease option and involved signing the deed to your home over to a pretend buyer of your property. When you sign over your deed you give the con artist right to evict you, raise payment or sell your house or refinance all your equity out of your home.

This leaves you holding the bag still responsible for the mortgage payment to your lender. By not making payment the lender can continue the foreclosure procedure.

Refinance Fraud happens when people pose as mortgage brokers or lenders and offer a home owner to refinance your mortgage in order to lower your mortgage payments.

The Con Artists may also trick a person into signing over the ownership or their home by saying that your are signing documents for a new mortgage loan.

When ever you sign over your deed you are left open to the dangers described above. Victims of fraud are not excused from their obligation of paying their mortgage and could be foreclosed on and lose their home.

Bankruptcy Schemes are done when a person tries to abuse the bankruptcy laws. This is done by assigning parts of your home to a 3rd party and each party then files bankruptcy on their share. T

his will put a stay on the foreclosure each time, however it does not excuse you from making payments or repaying the full amount of your loan. The con artist then gets the home owners to make payment to him instead of your lender.

The con artist may even file the bankruptcy in their name without your permission as part of the scam. Many people in foreclosure believe that by filing bankruptcy they can avoid foreclosure or making their mortgage payment.

Many times they are not informed properly that bankruptcy only delay the foreclosure. When ever a home owner signs over their deed they are giving up ownership of their home. Even giving up partial ownership can result in serious financial harm.

Loan Modification Up Front Payments

Some home owners have been left holding the bad. They are paying up front to have a third party negotiate their loan restructure, only to find out that the did not qualify for a loan modification.

Home owners who are facing foreclosure or having problems paying their mortgage should contact an experienced attorney and find legal ways to save their home or reduce their mortgage payment. Talk to a foreclosure attorney about your legal options to protect your family from a bank foreclosure.

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