Mortgage fraud has been an on-going problem for many years. Over the years I have met with dozens of Atlanta area residents who have been victims of various types of mortgage fraud.
I remember one case in particular where a gentleman came to me with a stack of papers related to unpaid mortgage obligations for five different houses. I asked this gentleman if he was a real estate investor, and he replied that he wasn’t but that he had “signed some papers” at the request of the minister at his church.
It turns out that the minister and his associates were buying properties in other people’s names, making payments for a few months, then borrowing against the value of these properties (aided by inflated appraisals). My client, who was a “straw purchaser” never knew anything about the scam until the fraudsters took the loan proceeds and disappeared, leaving my client to face the consequences. His minister stayed in town but claimed he was a fraud victim as well.
Unfortunately, because my client had been paid around $1,000 per property for his signature on the loan documents, he was considered a participant in the scam and I advised him that he would likely face objections to discharge should he file bankruptcy.
The point here is that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Earning $1,000 for your signature on some papers you don’t read certainly falls into that category.
Here is a helpful article from Experian (one of the 3 national credit bureaus) about preventing mortgage fraud.