Mortgage/Foreclosure Schemes target homeowners who are at risk of loan default or whose houses are already in foreclosure. The owner is misled into believing that he/she can save the home in exchange for deed transfers and up-front fees.

Equity Skimming
Equity Skimming involves any scheme wherein all of the equity is drained out of a property. For example, a homeowner is charged inflated fees to “help” him/her profit by refinancing the homes multiple times and thus skimming the equity from the property. Or the homeowner is talked into establishing a home equity line of credit on a property. The homeowner is then encouraged to access these funds for investment in various scams.

Phantom Help
The Phantom help scam involves a foreclosure "rescuer" charges the troubled homeowner outrageous fees for phone calls or paperwork that the homeowner could have easily done and will not result in saving the home.

The Bailout
The Bailout is when the homeowner is deceived into signing over title with the belief that they will be able to remain in the house as a renter and eventually buy it back over time. The terms of these scams are so burdensome that the buy-back becomes impossible, the homeowner will lose possession, and the "rescuer" walks off with most or all of the equity.

The Bait-and-Switch
In the Bait-and-Switch, they homeowner believes they are signing documents to bring the mortgage current, but instead they are actually surrendering homeownership.

Phony Counseling Agencies
Phony counseling agencies claim to be "counseling agencies" and will approach homeowners to offer to perform certain services for a fee. The services are ones that a homeowner could do for free or themselves or through the Indiana Foreclosure Prevention Network helpline.

The Indiana Attorney General’s Homeowner Protection Unit (HPU) was created in 2005 and investigates consumer complaints about licensed real estate appraisers and real estate agents. For HPU contact information and other mortgage fraud related resources, visit the resource section.

Mortgage fraud is not to be confused with predatory mortgage lending. Mortgage fraud is when one or more individuals defraud a financial institution; predatory lending is when a dishonest financial institution willfully misleads or deceives the consumer.