Insider knowledge has enabled mortgage and real estate fraud criminals in Utah to thrive in ways never before imagined and those at the greatest risk: mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents and Utah's seniors. 

Foreclosure rescue scams are a way of life for criminals but that doesn't mean that Utah and her consumers have to be victims.  Here are some warning signs to consider before conducting business with services that claim to assist families facing foreclosure:

Potential Warning Signs

The individual, enterprise or business entity offering assistance requests payment upfront for its services.  Usually in the amount of several hundred to several thousand dollars.

The individual, enterprise or business entity offering assistance is not a HUD approved counseling agency.

The individual, enterprise or business entity offering assistance is not a registered business entity with the Utah Department of Commerce.

The individual, enterprise or business entity offering assistance presents the win-win scenario of temporarily placing a family facing foreclosure into another home that is controlled by the individual, enterprise or business entity offering assistance.

The individual, enterprise or business entity offering assistance do so without contracts or use contracts that are not state approved by the Utah Division of Real Estate.    

The individual, enterprise or business entity mandates that only companies and or affiliates of their companies are used at all times during the transaction.  

The individual, enterprise or business entity offering assistance tells you that recently they helped someone else on your street with the same problem.  This is often how individuals, enterprises and business entities gain control of neighborhoods and fraudulently inflate market values for an entire neighborhood.

Check with the BBB, Department of Commerce, Division of Real Estate, Utah Consumer Protection Agency to learn more about the persons or business entities that want to help you.  

In many cases foreclosure rescue scams additionally involve identity theft against the person facing foreclosure.  Having access to vital financial information such as tax statements, bank statements and current financial expenditures can prove more than enough for individuals, enterprises or business entities to commit further fraud against persons facing foreclosure.

Unfortunately there is no quick fix to the threat of foreclosure.  Foreclosures and bankruptcies in Utah are well above national averages and unfortunately predators know this.  You owe it to yourself and those that depend upon you to become educated, get the facts and remember if it sounds to good to be true it probably is.