The foreclosure is something that will always and undoubtedly cause damage to your credit score, impeding getting additional credit loans for different things, from getting a low-line credit card to even applying for a new mortgage loan.
Fortunately, there are many things that you can do to prevent and even repair the damage that a foreclosure will cause on your credit score. Nonetheless, just as there are many things that you can do when facing foreclosure to protect your credit score, you also need to protect yourself from falling prey in the hands of scammers and scam artists that are lurking around real estate offices and governmental agencies searching for people who, like you, are facing foreclosure.
These people and ghost companies work in the same manner every single time, their prey are homeowners who are in the process of preventing foreclosure, whether they are asking for help to their lending companies or seeking to adhere to any of the many government issued assistance programs such as H4H. Other sector of their hunting grounds are homeowners who have already been foreclosed regardless if their homes were sold already and are in the redemption period or their homes are still to be placed up for second sale.
These predators will approach their potential victims through email, phone calls and even will advertise on newspapers, bulletin boards and online. These scammers will promise and offer to stop and detour foreclosure action against the homeowner for a small amount, or even erase any potential credit score damage; naturally, these are all false promises and should not be considered as an actual possibility.
Their MO will have subtle changes, but in general, they all go for the same thing:
• They will ask the homeowner to sign off on their property deed, making plausible and semi-logical reasoning such as if the homeowner is no longer in possession of the house, then he should not pay for it.
• They will ask the homeowner to stop immediate payment to the mortgage lender and instead, divert all the payments to them, who, after dealing and reaching an amicable understanding with the lender, will pass onto him. Of course, this is not true.
• They will ask for a upfront payment to ensure that the homeowner will pay them, though naturally, after signing off on their property deed or diverting the lender’s payment to them, they will have sole possession and control of the property and the money.
The sums that these ghost companies and scammers charge their victims for processes that they can do themselves can easily reach thousands of dollars. In both cases, naturally, the homeowner will loose their home and will get into an ever deeper and more problematic legal problem; where he could even face prison.
The way to counteract such danger is easy, when you are approached by any means by a company or a so-called agent that offers to help you or blatantly save. Before taking on their offer, regardless of how worried you might be, consult and make sure that they are licensed and that there is nothing wrong or potentially wrong with them.