Foreclosure rescue, also known as equity skimming or equity stripping, is any of various predatory real estate practices aimed at vulnerable, often low-income, homeowners facing foreclosure in the United States. Most often, these transactions take advantage of uninformed, low-income homeowners.
The term “foreclosure rescue” has sometimes referred to subprime lending refinance practices that charge excessive fees thereby “stripping the equity” out of the home. The practice more often describes foreclosure rescue scams. While most do not consider foreclosure rescue a form of predatory lending per se, foreclosure rescue is related to traditional forms of that practice.
Subprime loans targeted at vulnerable and unsophisticated homeowners often lead to foreclosure, and those victims more often fall to foreclosure rescue scams. Additionally, some do consider foreclosure rescue, in essence, a form of predatory lending since the scam works essentially like a high-cost and risky refinancing. Foreclosure rescue, however, is conducted almost always by local agents and investors, while traditional predatory lending is carried out by large banks or...