Is it any surprise that someone would try to enterprise on the recession? Through the last couple of years, we’ve been inundated by commercials on TV and radio about debt relief and companies that promise payment reductions. The internet is littered with advice on the topic of avoiding repossessions. Most are simply refinance and bankruptcy advice or simple credit counseling services that offer nothing more than what has always existed.
Until recently cracked down on, home loan modification scams, ironically being touted by the same people who brokered their bad loans to start with, were rampant. It does seem that some enterprising persons are attempting to organize a new spin on an old method of avoiding repossession through a strategy I’ll call, for lack of a better name, a “repo swap.” This strategy is as old as the hills and was traditionally one in which the borrower, knowing he was out for repossession, would trade his car with a friend or family member until he could get caught up or felt the heat was off.
I’ve recently found a “Fly by Night” operation called “assumealeasenow.com” promising to help people avoid repossession. It doesn’t surprise me that someone would take a stab at creating a cottage industry of creating a network for hiding vehicles in delinquency. I do however, find it humorous that they would choose this guy as their spokesman and broadcast their video on YouTube. With their underdeveloped website, I haven’t been able to find any evidence this operation is even in business anymore and doubt they managed to find enough suckers to profit on this.
Another individual, going by the name of "Pathway Asset Protection" appears to be offering the same on this video however, when you go to the quickie built website, they make no reference to cars as he does in the video. It looks like he's still operating aggressively out of Texas as he has ads all over Craigs List making similar deals and offers. I suspect this guy is using straw buyers and subleasing. Guys like this are all over the place and I had little trouble locating this one. Finding your car after he's found a buyer for it is a little more tricky though.
Another group known as “carrepostopper.com” just as blatantly advocates their “repo swap” services through a much better produced infomercial where two newscaster types speak glowingly of this company. From what I was able to find on their site, they had a whole whopping inventory of two cars available for trade. They advocate the public “stay MAD…” and “Self Preservation” by fighting back. I just don’t see this one catching on either. Nice try though.
I’ve encountered several large front end sub-leasing operations originating at the dealership that originate loans for criminal elements and other nefarious types but these are the first of this sort I have encountered. I am intrigued and may delve deeper if these operations seem to proliferate.
There is little reason to believe such operations pose a long term or serious threat to the collections industry as the normal nature of avoiding repossession is to hold the collateral close by either hiding or trading with close friends or family members. The average delinquent debtor is still too much in denial to attempt anything as risky as giving their car to a stranger and trusting they’ll get a fair and operable trade in return. There is reason, however, to always keep such suspicions on our minds as con men tend to flourish in times of economic hardship.
If anyone finds more of these, please let me know. It might be fun to create a bulletin board of these operations.
