Kris Drake writes on mortgage fraud taking place in Missouri,
This illegal practice hurts consumers because the buyers believe they are buying a $250,000 house for $200,000. However, if they can’t make the house payments and try to sell the property, they will find that the property has no equity. Ultimately, the consumer is forced to find a new place to live and go through a foreclosure or bankruptcy and the expense of moving.
Another form of sales price inflation fraud is referred to as a “flipping” scam.
Imagine a buyer purchases a $100,000 home for $100,000 cash. In a typical flipping scam, the new homeowner might work with an appraiser who agrees to artificially inflate the home value to $150,000, and then the new homeowner immediately resells the home to another buyer for $150,000. The $50,000 profit is often split between the engineer of the fraud scam, appraiser and others.
You may be a victim of mortgage fraud: