It started with a promise of help. It ended with hundreds, possibly thousands, of Arizonans losing not just their homes, but the very foundation of their lives.For nearly a decade, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes says a criminal enterprise has been preying on vulnerable homeowners, using high-pressure tactics and legal loopholes to rob them of the equity they had spent a lifetime building.Don’t missAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“Here comes a company with a very nice sounding name, or a “nonprofit,” that says ‘we will help you and all you have to do is sign here,’” Mayes told Arizona’s Family News.But what these homeowners were actually signing, Mayes says, was their future away.A lifetime, gone in a U-HaulFor one victim, the betrayal was both financial and deeply personal.“This was never supposed to happen,” Claire Bataille told Arizona’s Family, “I just never thought I would leave.”She bought her home in 2004. A couple of years ago, financial hardships pushed her into foreclosure. Then came a man named Cameron Jones, claiming he was with a group called Arizona’s Helping Hands.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“I thought he was such a wonderful person at the time,” Bataille said. “It was only a loan.”But the loan turned out to be a trap. Suddenly, she had an online court date and was being evicted.More in U.S.“He’s taken far more than my home, my memories, my heart,” she says.According to Mayes, the scam, called equity stripping, involves convincing distressed homeowners to unknowingly sign over the deeds to their homes, often in exchange for as little as $5,000 or $10,000. Meanwhile, the true value of the properties could be anywhere from $500,000 to $800,000, or more.“They are literally stealing people’s homes,” she said. “Sometimes even with the mortgage getting paid off, they could be getting $300,000 or $200,000 and the scammers are not telling them that.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMayes has filed a sweeping civil lawsuit against 70 defendants for consumer …
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