Owing only $100,000 for an equity loan on an otherwise free and clear San Fernando, CA home, retired Charleen Trana, 78, and her husband hit hard times and couldn't afford the payments and faced losing the home they'd owned for 50 years.

Days after her foreclosure notice appeared in the paper, three "very nice" men showed up on her door step and coaxed Trana into signing away her $400,000 home -- for a song.

In exchange for the title of the home and the right to rent it back for $900 a month, Trana got a used Honda Accord, $3,000 and an empty promise for $5,000 more and a paid off equity loan.

After the deal, the equity loan remained outstanding with her name on it and the title went to the apparently not-so-nice-after all men -- to whom she was then paying rent.

Trana is working with an attorney to regain title to her home, but just as home improvement con artists come out of the shattered wood work after a hurricane, earthquake, flood or other natural disaster, more and more often foreclosure scammers show up when household finances have been shattered beyond repair.

Along with the growth in mortgage fraud, title insurance kickbacks, over-inflated appraisals, fraudulent flipping and other forms of real estate fraud -- often fraught with insider action -- there's another underworld of organized criminals who watch the foreclosure listings like a cormorant circles for fish.

Much as is the case with other real estate transaction criminals, growth in the number of so-called "foreclosure rescuers" has been triggered by a booming real estate market of fast appreciation homes prices.

Higher home prices lead some home owners to creative financing deals, but later, as interest rates rise, in the case of adjustable rate mortgages (ARMS) the loans become too expensive. Likewise, appreciating home values give more and more owners equity to tap as cash for expenditures they may not have otherwise considered only to find later they can't afford the payments.

Unless the home owner takes recommended steps to avoid foreclosure he or she can lose the home to the bank, or worse, to "rescuers."

"The scammers represent themselves to troubled homeowners as rescuers. What these thieves are doing is unconscionable, illegal, and appalling," said Foreclosures.com president Alexis McGee.

"They're actually out to steal the house," she said.

"Dreams Foreclosed: The Rampant Theft of Americans' Homes Through Equity-Stripping Foreclosure 'Rescue' Scams", a National Consumer Law Center report that doesn't mince words, says the scams come in three common varieties.

• The Phantom The "rescuer" charges a home owner facing foreclosure exorbitant fees for light-duty phone calls and paperwork the home owner could have performed. There also may be promises for representation to stave off foreclosure but the help never materializes. The home owner loses valuable time to prevent foreclosure, gains nothing and the "rescuer" vanishes having plucked the home owner of what little cash he or she had.

• The Bailout The "rescuer" get's the home owner to surrender title to the house believing he or she is making a deal to become a renter and buy back the home over the next few years. Home owners are cajoled into surrendering the title. They are told someone with a better credit can secure new financing to prevent the loss of the home. Buy back becomes impossible, the home owner permanently loses possession, and the "rescuers" exit with all or most of the home's equity.

• Bait and Switch Home owners believe they are signing documents for a new loan to make the mortgage current but actually surrender the title of the home for a fraction of its value.

  The law center says home owners fall for the scams because the cons are devilishly clever.

• They prey upon older, vulnerable and desperate home owners and others less familiar about the foreclosure process.

• Scammers disguise their true intent with lies, exaggerations, pressure tactics and other measures.

• They use face-to-face come-ons to exploit the home owners belief that someone would not lie in person.

• They keep home owners in the dark about the foreclosure process, legal rights and alternatives to saving the home.

• Forgeries, complex document and documents that conveniently run out of space for signatures on pages containing text forcing the home owner to sign a blank page that is later attached to a different document, are among the tools of the crooked trade.

• They use "affinity marketing" techniques where blacks market to blacks, Christians to Christians, Spanish-speaking to Spanish-speaking with the idea that people like you are on your side and protecting you from those who don't have your best interests at hear.

Later this week: How To Avoid Foreclosure Scams

Published: July 27, 2005

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.