How the scam works:
You are looking to buy a home and come across an online promotion that guarantees a loan through your credit card. Giving it a cursory read, it seems to make some sense. There is a big red button that says, "Apply Now!"
Since you have trouble saying "no" to big red buttons, you click on it taking you to your credit card company's website, asking you to put in your personal and credit card information.
You figure it's just a loan application and comply, only to find out a few days later that your credit card is racked up with charges. How could this ever have happened?!
This scam also exists with all loans and it could apply to anything from general loans to a car loan. House loans are more lucrative as they are more expensive and the scammers use this to get as much as they can.
How to avoid:
Learn how to differentiate clone websites from authentic websites. Real website urls usually contain the name of the company; fake ones look like this: http://k2nxw.com/cgi-bin/login.
On the other hand, if you are from the United States you might might want to subscribe to RealtyTrac, to keep yourself out of trouble and educated about the industry. RealtyTrac is a real estate information company that publishes over 1 Million properties from nearly 2,500 counties nationwide, and is the foreclosure data provider to Yahoo! Real Estate and The Wall Street Journal’s Real Estate Journal. It has more than 1,000,000 current foreclosure and pre-foreclosure properties, daily e-mail alerts and property updates, 24/7 Support Center and educational tools, and a wide range of property valuation, transfer and title reports. They even have a 7-day free trial, worth checking it out. You can access RealtyTrac's website HERE
.
Make your friends and family aware of this scam by sharing it, using the buttons provided.
