Jobs lost to the recession, house values that have headed south, inflation – it’s no wonder that there are all these millions of homeowners who are desperate for a way to keep their homes from getting foreclosed on. Sadly though, as you’re probably aware from all the reporting there’s been on the mortgage scams doing the rounds, for every desperate homeowner out there, there is a confidence trickster who can’t wait to set his hooks into him.

It’s hard when you really need a good mortgage deal, when people come in and promise you just that. The temptation can be great to just try to take advantage of the deal. If you want to stay safe though, and keep from getting yourself into any more trouble than you are in already, take a look at these possible warning signs of how you might be close to getting ripped off. These mortgage scams are everywhere these days.

Would you believe that one of the most popular ways for con artists to use when approaching a potential victim is to pretend to be a government employee? Of course, they won’t quote a real government agency. They’ll make some official-sounding department name up and knock on your door asking if you want to be a part of a special hardship assistance program by the government.

They hope that you won’t believe how lucky you are and you won’t look too closely at what they are about. If you get one of these people asking you to sign up, you should go on your alert the moment they start talking about how you have to pay them something first to get the process going. A government assistance program is never going to ask you to pay anything.

The first thing you want to do when such person comes to you is, to make sure that the person and his department are for real. Ask for a website name to check out, ask for a physical address where you can visit the person in his office, and ask for an identity card and an official .gov e-mail ID.

A mortgage reconstruction counselor is another kind of fraud that tries to con unsuspecting homeowners out of their home and money. You’ll know who these people are when they ask you to allow them to completely do your mortgage payments for you. You’re supposed to make your check out to them, and they say that they’ll pay your mortgage for you. Only, they won’t.

Perhaps the worst kind of mortgage scams have to do with con artists actually trying to take over your house. They have a number of ways in which they do this. The first tell you that they’ll give you a loan to help you save your property. The forms that they give you however, are in fact property transfer forms. If you’re not really the kind who reads your forms properly, you’ll just sign on the dotted line, and it’ll be all over before you know it.