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An elderly homeowner with significant equity and a fixed income is approached by a lender who offers a refinance that wraps $18,000 in upfront fees into the new loan balance, raises her monthly payment by $400, and includes a balloon payment due in 5 years that the lender knows she cannot afford. The lender's plan is to foreclose and acquire the property. Which fraud type does this scenario most precisely describe, and what is the critical distinguishing feature?

Ethics · 18% of the SAFE examhard

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Correct answer: Equity stripping, distinguished by the lender's predatory use of fees, unsustainable loan terms, and planned foreclosure to systematically extract the homeowner's accumulated equity

Equity stripping is a predatory lending scheme in which a lender — often targeting elderly, low-income, or financially distressed homeowners — uses excessive fees, high interest rates, and loan terms the borrower cannot sustain to systematically drain the equity from a home, ultimately leading to foreclosure. The critical distinguishing feature is the lender's deliberate structuring of the transaction to ensure the borrower fails, allowing the lender to seize the property and its equity. "s predatory use of fees, unsustainable loan terms, a..." is incorrect because fraud for housing describes borrowers misrepresenting information to obtain a home; here the fraud is perpetrated by the lender, not the borrower. "Fraud for housing, distinguished by the borrower's i..." is incorrect because appraisal fraud centers on misrepresenting a property's value, which is not described in this scenario. "An air loan, distinguished by the lender fabricating..." is incorrect because an air loan involves a completely fabricated transaction with no real property or borrower; in this case, both the homeowner and the property are real.

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