Mortgage Elimination Scams
Whenever scammers and con artists see an opportunity, they seize on it. One fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 was that many people found themselves with a mortgage they could no longer afford. When faced with foreclosure, some people become desperate, which sets the stage for swindlers to try to make a buck off of another's misfortune. Mortgage elimination scams are nothing new, but they have reared their ugly heads in recent years.HistoryBefore the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008, mortgage elimination scams were popular in the 1980s and early 1990s when farmers in the Midwest were losing their land to the banks. The problem was so great that in 1985, concerts known as "Farm Aid," organized by Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp, began to raise money for farmers. This desperation by farmers made them susceptible to con men who tried to sell them kits to teach them how to use allodial title schemes, put fake liens on their property or claim that the bank never actually made any loans.How the Scams WorkMost mortgage elimination scams work the same way, by coming up with untrue and crazy theories about why you don't really owe a mortgage at all and that your mortgage is not legally enforceable, according to Quatloos.com. The scammers find quotes from the Federal Reserve, taken out of context, that your mortgage is somehow illegal in the first place, and therefore, you don't owe any money.FeaturesOnce the homeowner decides that these schemes may actually work, he goes to the local courthouse and files a bogus claim. An "allodial title" is one, whereby the homeowner makes the argument that it is illegal to foreclose because of a concept that exists in some systems of property law, whereby property cannot be taken for any reason. The fallacy of this argument is there is no allodial title in the U.S. And, even if there was, an allodial title cannot be mortgaged in the first place. The courts view this as a frivolous claim. The same thing goes for another bogus assertion, claiming that because no real money was ever touched when the mortgage was taken out, no money was ever loaned.ConsiderationsIf the claims that mortgages are worthless were true, most mortgages would be invalid. Typically, lenders use borrowed money to fund your loan. Scammers may cite a case where a judge declared a mortgage illegal, but courts do not uphold this argument. In fact, the promoters of these schemes have never had a victory against the creditors. Famous ScamOne of the largest scams of this type was the Dorean Group, a fictitious company fronted by two men who were indicted and arrested in 2005. This scam had homeowners paying the Dorean Group anywhere from $1,500 to $5,000. Then, instead of the homeowner filing the false claim, the Dorean Group would do it for him. They would make the standard claim that the mortgage was not legal in the first place; and if the lender did not prove that it was in 10 days, the lender would forfeit all legal claim to the property. When the lender would not respond, the Dorean Group would take it from there and file a discharge of mortgage claim based on their original fake document. After the homeowners were out the money paid to the Dorean Group, they still owed on their original mortgage.Prevention/SolutionIf you are in danger of losing your property and think that by filing false claims in the hopes of buying yourself some time will help, you will only be making matters worse for yourself. By filing false court claims, you will have committed perjury, and you could be prosecuted for doing so. If you are in trouble and really need to eliminate your mortgage, do it the legal way. If you can't pay your mortgage, you might want to consider filing for chapter 7 bankruptcy. You will lose the house, but you won't be liable for the mortgage and won't be out any extra money from being conned.
