Homeowners part of the Washington foreclosure listings have to tread carefully. Seeing increasing number of homeowners facing foreclosure falling prey to scamsters, the federal government along with state governments is passing new laws to provide help.

The Federal Bureau of Investigations chief of financial crimes, Sharon Ormsby, said that scams where con-men swindle homeowners on the pretext of rescuing foreclosures are in all likelihood, going to increase. This could probably blow up to be as big a problem as mortgage fraud he also said.

Brad Elbein, the regional director of the Federal Trade Commission said that three cases for rescuing major mortgage foreclosures were filed by the Federal Trade Commission this year, none were filed last year. One of the case, he said, involved victims by the thousands and property valued at millions of dollars. He went on to compare mortgage fraud to a virus that had in all likelihoods been around for some time, but has gone on to become a big issue only recently.

Sharon Ormsby said that people approached homeowners promising to work as negotiators between them and the lenders for a fee and then decamping with the money.

Speaking other cases, she said there were cases where there home owners would sign the title of the property to a rescue company paying rent to them, while the rescue company was to pay the monthly payments on the mortgage. What the company would then do is sell the house and rake in the left over equity. A hidden deed transfer clause would be put in the documents to refinance the house, where without realizing it, home owners would end up transferring the title of the house.

A law that was passed by the Washington State on the 12th of June stated that a written contract would need to be provided to home owners and that they would be given a five day period to change their decision. If the rescue company were to possess the property and sell it, then they would get to keep 18% of the equity, with the original home owner getting 82%.