Illinois Woman Charged With Scamming Motivated Home Seller Out Of House Payments, Say Cops

In Mokena, Illinois, the Southtown Star reports:

• Linda Novelli moved with her four children from Mokena to Atlanta this summer to be closer to her relatives. Last month, she moved back, angry and $40,000 poorer. In between, Novelli claims, a woman named Kathleen Dangman turned her life upside down, bilking her out of payments after she bought Novelli's Mokena home.

• Dangman, 38, is in Will County Jail awaiting trial on six counts of felony forgery in two separate cases. Her next hearing is Tuesday. Mokena police say Dangman ran a "sophisticated operation" in which she bought homes, struck deals with the original homeowners to pay them directly and then paid with fraudulent checks or money orders.

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• In December, [Mokena Police Cmdr. Chris Surdel] said, homeowners in [an unrelated case] told police Dangman was leasing their home and bouncing checks. Dangman was arrested on two counts of forgery in January. She was out on bond when she moved into Novelli's home this summer, Surdel said.

For more, see Mokena woman caught up in home-buying scam.