The collapse of the housing market coupled with the meteoric rise in consumer debt has dramatically increased the number of annual foreclosures. Last year there were both record number of home foreclosures and bankruptcies reported across the US. Those who endure the hardship of foreclosure face possible loss of their home and this in turn causes them to seek out assistance.

Those facing foreclosure face tremendous emotional distress much more so than those facing bankruptcy. The extraordinary stress of foreclosure causes ones judgment to become clouded and makes it easy to fall victim to scammers.

It always astonishes me that no matter how bad off an individual might be there is inevitably another individual willing to exploit that persons suffering for their own financial gain. Con artists and scammers have wasted no time in preying upon the extraordinary distress of those facing foreclosure.

Scammers attempting to siphon money from those facing foreclosure primarily rely upon two scams: the equity scam and the fake counseling scams.

An equity scam is where an unsolicited offer is made to those facing foreclosure to find a buyer for their homes and immediately solve their financial problems. The individual making the offer will even offer to take over the debt in exchange for their deed to the house.

Once the house is deeded over to the scammer, the house is then rented out while the foreclosure proceedings remain in progress. Foreclosure proceedings can take many months offering the scammer the potential to earn thousands. Those who deeded over the home ultimately do not discover the scam until their home has been auctioned off. They are then stuck with the original mortgage debt and the loss of their home.

With the fake counseling scam, an unsolicited offer is made for "expert" advice and assistance in exchange for a small fee. The "experts" will then figure out a way to reduce your monthly payments and even reduce the original mortgage debt. What really ends up happening is that the money is turned over to experts who offer advice that could have found freely been on the Internet.

Often times the consulting fees for such a service can cost hundreds and even thousands of dollars. The best a consultant can really do is get you a short grace period, usually of no more than a couple of months. Again, information for the grace period could have easily been retrieved from the internet or by a quick trip to the local library.

The easiest way to avoid being scammed while enduring foreclose is to remember the golden rule marketing; if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is. If someone offers "expert" advice and assistance, you should do a search for the information they provide on the internet. More than likely you will find the very same information that the "experts" have access to but without the price tag.