Don’t ever underestimate the genius of criminals trying to get money from you without working. I heard about a new type of fraud going on today that may be coming to the Annapolis MD real estate area.

It goes something like this. Criminals search through recent public domain information regarding house sales. They pick out unsuspecting homeowners and send them an “official” looking letter telling them that their mortgage has been sold. Of course they give them detailed instructions as to who and where to send their next mortgage payment. Them, of course. The first time the unsuspecting homeowner knows about it is when their bank calls wanting to know when they’re going to pay the mortgage. Their’s is a post office box and since most of us who write checks to legitimate banks also send the payments to post office boxes it doesn’t seem suspicious.

All they need is a few people to bite on the scam and then they move on pretty quickly.

If you ever receive anything like this in the mail, no matter how official looking, immediately contact your bank to verify that it’s legitimate.

As the seargent on the old TV series Hill Street Blues used to say…”be careful out there.”