Interesting story

[Tractor]

I thought I'd share a scary and interesting story that happen to my family many years ago. I'd also like some discussion on it because I just can't get my head around how it can happen.

 

So... Back in the mid `80's my grand father decided to sell his house. A guy came along to buy it and I can't imagine why it was allowed, but my grand father let the guy have all the papers "handled". Well it ended up that he simply stole the house from him and kicked him out.

They did go to court, but didn't get anywhere.

 

Its bugged me for decades how my family can be that dumb and they still do things so backwards that they set themselves up for stuff like this. I've always attributed it to being "farm" people.

 

Is this sort of scam even still possible? It would be cool to hear from some of the E lawyers here. I've even searched a little on the topic, but don't find much, likely due to so many regulations and paperwork these days.

[jeffro]

Notaries exist for a reason.

[Geeto67]

Not only can scams like that still happen but they have gotten way more advanced. I used to live in New Orleans a decade ago and there used to be a little known filing loophole that allowed people to act as if they owned your house. By the time any clerk figured out their paperwork was bogus they have already started eviction proceedings, called the cops for trespassing, filed FEMA claims on your property, and tried to extort money out of you through "legal" harassment. Once the paperwork was discovered bogus it was just thrown out, most weren't filed under real names anyway so no action was taken.

 

But the type of scam you are talking about with your grandfather is an old one and relies on the trusting nature of older generations. It still goes on but now it targets people at risk of foreclosure with high equity in the home. Usually the scammer will tell you to stop making payments while they work a solution with the bank, then the day before the foreclosure they will tell you the work out didn't work and to sign the house to them to keep living in it. Desperate people sometimes do and then they find they still owe the mortgage and now the scammer has their collateral and they are being evicted by the scammer or paying rent to him. I believe it is called equity stripping.

[Tractor]

Nice.

[cstmg8]

That's terrible to hear, and falls in line with a lot of the stories you hear these days of people scamming the elderly. Several people in the building I work at have been threatened over the phone and mailed checks.

I'm pretty sure that guys vehicle would have a "brake issue" not long after.

[ImUrOBGYN]

Even more widespread these days seems to be rental scams and fake home sales where people put a down payment or a "hold" payment to a person or company that doesn't really own the home. Looking for places to rent/buy, I'm amazed just how many scams are still attempted. But when you think about elderly, foreigners, etc, I guess it's not so crazy. It's simply a numbers game. Eventually, you will find someone to fall for your scam.

[Tractor]

My wife has worked in banking for over 10 years and has seen many customers actually fall into the email scams where someone wants to send you a check for say $5000 and then they need you to wire them back $3000 and they don't mind if you keep the other $2000.

 

This was in north westerville and would happen to people with plenty of cash in their accounts, not older, or desperate people. I found that part very interesting.

[ImUrOBGYN]

"There's a sucker born every minute." The fact is that naivete and/or ignorance doesn't necessarily have anything to do with your lot in life. People are either too hopeful or greedy and sadly, there's always someone who'll take advantage of that.

 

Don't give money to strangers. Hell, don't trust them - give them the benefit of the doubt but don't be fooled.

 

You didn't nor will you ever win a lottery you haven't entered.

 

The more people involved you know and trust, the better.

[Tractor]

"There's a sucker born every minute." The fact is that naivete and/or ignorance doesn't necessarily have anything to do with your lot in life. People are either too hopeful or greedy and sadly, there's always someone who'll take advantage of that.

 

Don't give money to strangers. Hell, don't trust them - give them the benefit of the doubt but don't be fooled.

 

You didn't nor will you ever win a lottery you haven't entered.

 

The more people involved you know and trust, the better.

 

Thats what I found so interesting. I guess the scam is probably targeting people who could easily write a 5K check or it wouldn't work anyway.

[cybe]

These guys:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_citizen_movement

 

The new gypsy squatter.

[Geeto67]

Real Estate Scams tend to disproportionately affect the elderly because they are:

1) most likely to own their house outright or at least have sizeable equity

2) are usually on fixed income and in need of money

3) are not always as "mentally sharp" to protect themselves against stuff like this.

 

Desperate people are also a large target and there have been a lot of them since the housing crisis of 2008 which has given rise to fake foreclosure counseling, phony forensic loan auditing, nonexistent mass rejoinder lawsuits, bait-and-switch ploys, leaseback programs, and fraudulent “government” modification programs.

 

there is a pretty good forbes article that gives a high level view:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/morganbrennan/2013/07/16/3-insidious-real-estate-scams-and-how-to-avoid-them/

 

The problem with Real estate scams is the problem with Real Estate - it is one of those processes that seems complicated to the lay person because there are a lot of steps and not a lot of easy access to information (the info is out there and easy to get a hold of but not everyone understands how it is written).