Foreclosure Rescue Scams

Posted July 30, 2007 They promise to help you get out of foreclosure. But they end up stealing your home instead. As part of her on-going series Mortgage Meltdown, ABC2 News Investigator Tisha Thompson shows you how to avoid becoming the next victim of a “foreclosure rescue scam.”
 
Mortgage experts say Maryland is now the worst in the nation when it comes to foreclosure scams, in part because of one local woman whose victims say stole so many homes, she walked away with millions of dollars.

It’s a fuzzy picture of a jubilant bride and her smiling groom. "Patti Labelle sung at her wedding,” says Nadine Bostic. “She had bought everyone's gown, gave away 10-thousand dollars, gave away a Porsche." Bostic looks up from the picture. "I did not attend, I was not invited." It’s a picture that drives Bostic crazy. “She had a million dollar wedding with people's money. She did her wedding with my money.”

When Bostic and her husband split up, Bostic’s Elkridge home went into foreclosure. It put her in a panic because Maryland only give you 15 days to save your home. "Someone referred me and I went to the Money Store,” says Bostic. “I met the owner. Her name was Joy."

You are looking at the only picture that’s ever surfaced of Joy Jackson, who, according to court records, is also known as Joyce Jackson, Joy Fordham and Joy Simms. Court records that show she’s been sued a half-dozen times for not paying her bills.

Records that show she’s lived in at least 27 homes and used to run a company called “The Metropolitan Money Store.” Peter Holland is Bostic attorney. "This is the largest mortgage fraud case in Maryland history. So far we've identified more than 200 victims.” Holland says Jackson ran what’s called a “foreclosure rescue scam.” This is how he says it works: Let’s say you bought your house a few years ago for $100,000. It’s now worth $300,000, but you’re going into foreclosure.

So, you ask Joy Jackson at the Metropolitan Money Store for help. She recruits what’s called an “investor,” promising to pay the investor $10,000 if the investor will sign some papers. She then takes out a second mortgage for the home’s full value…remember that $300,000?

She tells you to sign some papers that will let you rent your home from the investor for one year. In return, get $100,000 to pay off your mortgage. Unless you read the papers carefully, you don’t realize you’ve just signed away the deed to your house to the investor…who pockets the $10,000. And your house will still go into foreclosure because instead of paying back the second mortgage, Holland says Jackson pockets the remaining $190,000, and in Bostic’s case, throws herself a wedding…and is never seen again. Holland says, "When you have a vulture swoop in and take not only your house from you, but all of your life savings that were tied into the house, that is a scam. It is done through fraud by confidence men and it is wrong and it is illegal under Maryland law."

Federal and state agents are investigating Jackson and may press criminal charges. The state says foreclosure scams make up more than 60% of all the fraud cases they receive. "The end result is you can't afford to buy the house back,” says Stephen Prozeralik, Maryland’s Director of Enforcement for Financial Regulation. “You are eventually evicted from the house. You may not even know it." "The home is not in my name." Bostic says she has no idea who the man is now listed on her deed. “I'm not married to him. Have never heard of him.

I do not know him." But it’s not stopping her, and as many as 200 families, from suing the Metropolitan Money Store, hoping to get their homes back from a woman they thought they could trust. "She hurt a lot of people. She needs to pay. She needs to pay." T

he ABC2 News Investigators repeatedly tried to contact Joy Jackson to give her side of the story, but as state investigators, her former clients and their lawyers have discovered, Joy Jackson and her husband have vanished. The foreclosure scam works because it is so complicated. If you want to see how it works, read our story on Foreclosure Fiasco's.