What is "Home Equity Theft" ?

The phrase "Home Equity Theft" is used in several different contexts that encompass a variety of unscrupulous practices that jeopardizes the equity in a property owner's home. Some practices result in a significant loss in the amount of equity that has "built up' in the family home without actually losing the ownership of the home; other practices result in the actual loss of one's home, by a transfer of the ownership to a scam artist. (Some of the practices can also be characterized as examples of "Predatory Lending").

Some "home equity thieves" will approach you when you when you are behind in your house payments. Others will approach you when your home needs expensive repairs. Yet others will lure you in by promising to reduce your debt through debt consolidation or refinancing.

I will try to touch on the various schemes to give the reader of this blog some taste for what is going on so that you can protect yourself from the home equity thieves from turning your home equity into their money.

Before I begin describing the various forms of Home Equity Theft, let me list some of the "standard vocabulary" of words & phrases that you may encounter in reading about Home Equity Theft:

Deed theft, title conversion, equity stripping, equity skimming, foreclosure assistance, foreclosure rescue, mortgage rescue, loan flipping, debt consolidation, home improvement fraud.