Mortgage Fraud and Predatory Lending
Homeowners often get solicitations of many kinds; loans for debt consolidation, home repairs or improvement; low prices for anything concerning the home or the existing mortgage. Most of these offers, by nature, involve putting your home up as collateral. Often, the financing terms start as one thing, but by the time the huge stack of papers are signed, the terms suddenly become much higher and less favorable. This tactic is called the “bait and switch”. Excuses such as, “you're in a high risk area” or “the way your home is built requires custom work instead of the standard price you saw in the advertisement” are usually part of the scam. Other types of mortgage and lending frauds include flipping scams, forgeries of loan documents using crooked notaries, and multiple refinacings in a short period of time, called “churning”. The elderly are especially targeted. They may end up losing their home over unfair or unnecessary home improvement contracts or other types of home loans.