Unwitting Investors, Novice Would-Be Homebuyers Allegedly Victimized By Massive Midwest "Rent-To-Own" Real Estate Ripoff

National Public Radio reports:

• An investment offer pitched to several thousand Canadians and Americans in 2008 on a traveling investment infomercial/seminar circuit has gone terribly wrong. Several companies offered buyers what they pitched as an opportunity to take advantage of the foreclosure crisis: buying foreclosed homes at low prices and then collecting payments on a rent-to-own basis from people who would live in those houses. Legal documents show about 1,200 properties across the Midwest were sold to investors from the U.S. and Canada, but deeds were rarely transferred.

For more, see Thousands Duped By Midwest Housing Scam.