An article in the Provo Daily Herald entitled "In our view: Are people this dumb?" suggests that 'common sense' may be a consumer's best defense against scams.
The simplest rule of self-defense against grifters is this: If it sounds too good to be true, it's probably not true. Common sense tells you that your mortgage is a legal debt owed to a mortgage company or bank, and you need to pay it regardless whether the Federal Reserve Bank is an illegal entity (which it isn't, of course). If the national banking system were truly a fraud, you'd think someone would have figured it out by now. It's amazing that anybody would actually fall for this -- especially someone with substantial cash assets and, presumably, life experience. How many people just happen to have $3,000 lying around? Are people really this dumb?
Rachel Dollar, the editor of Mortgage Fraud Blog is an attorney and Certified Mortgage Banker who handles litigation for lending institutions and secondary market investors.