Popular Personal Finance Blogger PT Money recently had a guest post from someone whose mother was scammed trying to refinance her mortgage.
My mom has lived in the same home in South Florida for nearly 25 years. She has always paid her mortgage on time and never asked for a handout. Five years ago, when the economy was thriving and no one, other than perhaps lending and banking insiders, knew the housing bubble was about to burst my mom refinanced her mortgage to get a temporary lower interest rate….
…Back to the story — the telemarketer from “The Hardship Center” told my mother that in order to get her home refinanced she needed to pay an upfront fee of $2,500.
You probably already guessed that my mother transferred funds from an online account to this guy. Ironically she transferred the money from her Bank of America checking account, the same bank that rejected her from a legitimate refinance.
Lesson Learned:
Yet another story of the elderly being scammed out of their hard-earned money. The elderly are easy prey, unfortunately, and I really want to encourage more self-education to prevent stuff like this from happening. In this instance it is obvious the owner should have done her research before dealing with any company. The research they did after the fact was plenty that could have prevented this unfortunate circumstance.
Research, Research, Research!
Amount Flushed Down the Money Drain: At least $2,500
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