Did you know that you can go to jail for letting someone use your name to falsely obtain a mortgage?
Some people apparently don’t. There’s been dozens of cases in the last few years where people have accepted $3000 to $8000+ to get a mortgage for someone they didn’t know previously.
It’s called being a “straw borrower” and Calgary Real Estate Board president, Diane Scott, says it can get you “arrested and charged.”
Worse yet, straw borrowers are typically fully responsible for mortgages obtained in their name. That’s true even if a fraudster “talked them into it.”
More from the Calgary Sun’s Myke Thomas: Story
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Last modified: April 26, 2014
So true and so sad. I’ve seen lots of fraud like this among uneducated “investors”.
One “positive” thing about this particular crime is that the straw borrowers end up having to pay back the very loans they signed up for (imagine that!) so there are actually consequences for their actions, and that’s not something we see nearly enough of in this society.
Too bad the people organizing all this fraud don’t get held nearly as accountable as they should be.
I also have this lunatic habit of talking to a lawyer before signing up for half a million in debt, but that’s just me.
And you wonder why the “straw borrowers” are surpirsed when they get arrested. If someone offers you money to use your name you know something is up.
One time I was crossing the border from Canada into the USA and the border guard asked me if anyone had asked me to take a mysterious package across the border in exchange for money. If it’s too good to be true – it likely is.