Staten Island mom says she had just '20 minutes' to get out after losing her home in a foreclosure prevention scam. Here are the red flags she missed

One of those homeowners, Dina Pantazis, described the heartbreak of being forced out as a locksmith changed the locks on her longtime Staten Island home.

“I was running around the house trying to grab things that I needed, grabbing bags and just throwing things in bags,” Pantazis told NBC 4 New York (1). “After 20 minutes, we had to go.”

Homeowner Joe Forte told NBC 4 that a new owner opened his home to strangers “to take whatever they wanted to take,” including his children’s clothing, after purchasing and changing the locks on his home.

Text messages reviewed by NBC 4 showed homeowners receiving requests to send payments as they awaited mortgage refinancing, which they say never materialized. Some homeowners also say they were told not to pay their mortgages during the process, an allegation Lauren Taliento, who runs JT Home Savers, denied in a statement to NBC 4. About the homeowners’ payments, Taliento stated that, “Any funds exchanged were solely for clearly disclosed administrative processing, consulting or document-related services.”

Attorney Scott Ugell, a retired judge who specializes in real estate law and now represents several of the families, was blunt in his assessment. “In my opinion, it was a garden-variety fraud,” Ugell told NBC 4. “It was encouraging people to give her money, which she had no right to take.”

Initially telling homeowners there was no case, the Staten Island District Attorney’s Office now says it is investigating the matter, according to NBC 4. However, for these homeowners, the damage may already be done.

How foreclosure prevention scams work

Foreclosure prevention and mortgage loan modification scams often target homeowners at their most vulnerable — when they’re behind on payments, facing financial hardship and scared of losing their homes. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau(CFPB), these schemes typically work “by making a false promise of saving you” through loan modification promises (2), for example, or special negotiations and insider connections.

For desperate homeowners, these promises can feel like a lifeline. But in reality, the scammers are only in it for themselves. Though the schemes can vary, most follow a similar playbook. The scammers often:

• Charge upfront fees, claiming they can save your home from foreclosure.
• Tell homeowners to stop paying their mortgage so they can negotiate a better deal.
• Pose as experts or consultants, but with no legal authority to offer mortgage relief services.
• Create a false sense of security, assuring homeowners that everything is being "handled.”
• Delay action until foreclosure proceedings are too far along to stop.

Even just a short pause in communication with your lender, or a few missed payments based on bad advice, can turn a temporary financial setback into a permanent consequence. Once a home is sold at auction, most homeowners are left with few legal options.