BANKS ISSUES WARNING ON PROPERTY RESCUE SCAMS (Crimeline)

BANKS ISSUES WARNING ON PROPERTY RESCUE SCAMS

Home owners are urged to be wary of scams doing the rounds promising home loans’ repayment bail-outs, says the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC) (today, 19 September 2010). SABRIC CEO, Mrs Kalyani Pillay, explains: “The banks are concerned about the relentless offers doing the rounds that are made to home owners which claim to be solutions for the challenges that they may be experiencing in honouring their home loans’ repayments.

These offers are, in actual fact, calculated scams that may result in homeowners losing their properties. We appeal to all home loan account holders to discuss repayment options with their banks in the case of distress, rather than being tempted by these offers that are generally scams”.

According to SABRIC, there are numerous variations to the property rescue scams and the scams are not a new phenomenon internationally. The basic modus operandi of the property rescue scams is centred on the dire circumstances of a home loan account holder, such as when the account holder is faced with the possibility of losing their property as a result of defaults in home loans repayments. Perpetrators of these scams generally present themselves as legitimate businesses or consultants, often with listed telephone details and websites.

They advertise their services through newspapers and outdoor signage, and they also use court foreclosure notices in newspapers to source details of their victims. Pillay concludes: “The reality is that in their various guises, property rescue scams inevitably results in the homeowner that decide to take up these offers being even more indebted or losing their home. It is for this reason that bank clients are urged to be wary of any easy solutions to their circumstances proposed by other third parties, and to rather rely on their financial institutions for advice”.