A Victim

Started by Davo, May 18, 2011, 12:58 PM

Davo

     Listen to Miss Renate Braverd as she speaks from experience she had from scam
 
Problems started for Ms. Brevard when her $1300 adjustable rate mortgage reset to a higher rate causing her mortgage payment to spike. To get help with lowering her mortgage, she reached out for help. She was happy when she found a company that would take over the mortgage while they worked out a lower payment for her. She signed the paperwork to lease her home from them, not realizing that she had actually signed over the deed to her home. She "leased" her home from them with the promise that she could buy it back later. It never happened. She "rented" her home from the company for about two years until she got suspicious and sought the advice of a lawyer.

The lawyer she sought referred her to another lawyer, who told her the lease-buyback was definitely a scam. He said she needed to move quickly to save her home. The lawyer asked Ms. Brevard for a retainer to get started on her loan modification and she signed the agreement right away. He told her he could save her home. He also told her to stop paying the lease-buyback scammers and to pay him instead while he worked out new payment arrangements. As part of his legal services, he said he would go to court and file motions on her behalf to keep her home out of foreclosure. During this time he advised her to stop opening mail from the lender and to forward any lender correspondence to him.

The lawyer scheduled to meet with Ms. Brevard for one of the filings at the county courthouse. Instead of meeting in the courthouse, they met in the courthouse parking lot which seemed odd to her. The lawyer had been disbarred but she was not aware of this at the time. As the lender letters continued to come, she grew increasingly nervous but the lawyer told her not to worry. One day while at work, her worst nightmare came true. She received calls from her neighbors saying that she had been evicted from the New Carrollton home she shared with her family. It was at this point that she realized her house had been foreclosed on.

She contacted her lawyer who told her it was a mistake and he was on his way to the courthouse to fix it. He said he would call her back. She called him when he did not call her back. He told her that her courthouse file was empty when he went to check it out. Ms. Brevard became very suspicious of her lawyer at this point. A few days later, she went to the courthouse to check for herself. Her heart dropped at the news she received. The court clerk told her the lawyer had never appeared on her behalf at the courthouse. She reviewed the foreclosure case on her house and realized the lawyer she hired was not listed on record so she requested a copy of the entire case. Not one motion had been filed despite repeated updates from the lawyer. At this point, Ms. Brevard realized she had been scammed. By the time the scam was discovered and reported to authorities, she had already paid $13,000 to the lawyer alone - and she had lost her New Carrollton, MD home. But she wants to make sure that other homeowners know the signs of a scam so they can protect themselves.

Davo


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Great story, good lesson. Thanks.

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