Home Refinancing Scam – Thieves Use Identity Theft to Steal Your Equity

Since demise of stock market in 2000, real estate market has been booming. Investors who are justifiably cautious about investing in stocks have been investing in homes. This has driven prices of homes in United States to record levels. Long-time homeowners are discovering that they have a tremendous amount of equity in their homes as values rise, sometimes in hundreds of thousands of dollars. The past five years have been good to homeowners and lenders. Unfortunately, past five years have also been good to equity thieves, who are using identity theft to steal equity from homes, often without homeowner’s knowledge.

As median value of a home in United States is currently a little more than $200,000, there is plenty of incentive for equity thief. The scam is relatively simple and usually involves homes that are completely paid off. The thief obtains a copy of homeowner’s Social Security number and a fake driver’s license in homeowner’s name. Using this fake identification, thief forges a quitclaim deed, a document transfers a homeowner’s interest in a property to a third party. The document says,

Student Loans: The Life Preserver Of Our Education System

A loan is reason many students are able to go to college and not have to worry about money until after they've graduated. There is a lot of paperwork involved in application process of a loan, but once you've completed it and been accepted, it will have been worth it. Loans can help with cost of books, tution and even living expenses or they can cover them completely. It all depends on your eligibility, which is determined in application process of loan.

Applying for a loan is free and you can even complete it online. You can get a copy of application at your college's financial aid office, post office or library. It takes some patience and time to fill it out and various paperwork is needed before you can turn it in, but you will be happy once loan comes in. Your grades are taken into consideration when applying for a loan as well. Although you don't have to have a 3.0 GPA to get a loan, you do need to be making satisfactory grades to receive any assistance. Your college will determine whether you're eligible to apply for a student loan or not.

There are some criteria that you have to meet before you can even be considered for a loan although. You must be a U.S. citizen or an eligible non-citizen. You must be making satisfactory grades and be attending a college that participates in federal student loan program. You also need to be a half time student, at least and truly be in need of assistance.The amount of assistance you will receive depends on whether you're an independent (you report only your income and that of your spouse if applicable) or a dependent (you report income of both your parents). The grade level you're in is also taken into account when loan assistance is being determined as well.