Chicago Homeowner, Local Non-Profit Fight To Save Home Allegedly Stolen In Equity Stripping, Foreclosure Rescue Ripoff

MSNBC's The Red Tape Chronicles recently ran a story on foreclosure fraud and short sale fraud. Included in the report is the story of Chicago, Illinois homeowner Angela Carter, 55, who alleges in a lawsuit that she was ripped off of close to $100,000 in an equity stripping, foreclosure rescue scam by a company named Second Chance Program and is fighting to keep her home:

• Here is Carter’s version of events: After signing a flurry of paperwork, she signed title of the house over to Second Chance, selling her house for $140,000 with the understanding that she would pay the firm rent and could repurchase the house a year later for $180,000. But almost immediately after signing the deal, Carter said, Second Chance took out a second loan on the property based on her untapped equity and pocketed close to $100,000 -- a common scheme called "equity skimming."

• “I had no idea what the building was worth,” she said. “And I had no idea they were buying my house. All along I thought they were giving me a loan.” Two years later, Second Chance sent Carter an eviction notice.

• With the help of Chicago's nonprofit Home Ownership Preservation Project [of the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago], she was able to temporarily block the eviction. Now, the two parties are fighting in state court about who holds the rights to the home. Earlier this month, Carter spent a week in court pleading her case. Now she faces a long wait to find out if she'll get to keep her house and what will happen to the $100,000 in equity her family earned from living there for nearly five decades. "I have no idea how it's going to turn out," she said. "It's like living with a question mark over your head.”

For more, see Millions At Risk Of Foreclosure Fraud.