Housing Fraud Spreads In California's Central Valley

The Fresno Bee reports:

• Janie Torres thought she was getting help from her friendly neighborhood real estate agent. Instead, she lost her home -- becoming an apparent victim of a form of fraud spreading across California's Central Valley as the mortgage crisis deepens.

• From phony foreclosure consultants who take thousands of dollars in illegal prepayments and then do nothing, to real estate agents offering complicated rescue schemes that take away people's homes, mortgage scammers are increasingly active, law enforcement and real estate officials say.

• Schemes range from homeowners being defrauded by phony foreclosure "rescue" services -- Tulare County prosecutors have accused one woman of defrauding more than 200 people across the state -- to nationwide schemes, like one described in a federal indictment unveiled last month in Sacramento. And while some alleged scammers are now facing criminal prosecution, it's likely many more cases have yet to surface, law enforcement officials say.

For more, see Valley housing scams spread (Phony 'rescue' services lure homeowners in crisis).