As if losing homes to predatory lenders isn't bad enough, there are Internet scam artists ready to help the rest of us eliminate debt with "legal" ways to dispose of mortgage loans or credit card debt. The most frequent method is asking the victim to send between $1200 to about $2,000 to the scam artist, along with all the loan information particulars tha contain all of your personal information.  These predators then require a special power of attorney authorizing the victim to enter into transactions regarding the title of the  homes on their behalf. The scam artist proceeds to issue bonds and promissory notes to the lenders that purport to legally satisfy the debts of the victim. . In exchange, the victim is then required to pay a certain percentage of the value of the satisfied debts to the "scammer". The risk for identity theft is drastically increased because victims have provided all of their peronsal information to the scam artists.  

You can file complaints with the FBI at http://www.fbi.gov/ [1] and with the National White Collar Crime Center at http://www.nw3c.org/ [2] if you, a friend or relative has fallen victim to a debt collection scam.  This alert is close to me because a dear friend who was housebound due to illness, fell prey to Internet cyber crime.