A scam to trick people into signing over documents for their homes has been revealed and culprits are hiding behind the law.
An intentional scheme to deceive and manipulate homeowners into signing over their properties to shady real estate companies has been unearthed recently. According to The New York Times, an elaborate scam was perpetuated on a disabled woman in February 2014. While watching television, she reportedly saw an ad about a company willing to buy homes in any condition in cash. The ad said the whole process only takes a week. The woman, realizing it could be the answer to her financial woes, decided to call and to her delight, the company sent a representative a few hours later.
Within a few days, the woman is promised that her house fits the bill of what the company is looking for and she will be paid $43,800 plus they will take care of her delayed mortgages. The only thing she needs to do is sign over the deed to her home over to them. She did and she is no longer the owner of her house. She also needs to pay $529,000 in mortgage. She said she and her relatives tried to track down the name of the company given to her which is Jefferson Holding LLC but the address did not match and they discovered that the company does not exist at all.
In a report by Curbed, the fact that the company that tricked the woman used LLC or Limited Liability Companies means finding and charging the people behind the scam are easier said than done. Companies using LLCs are not required to fully disclose their identities like corporations do. This means they can operate without sharing important information like names of its employees and details that could prove that the company is legit.
