If you are in Southern California can you help with the removal of the onslaught of "Real Estate Investor Seeks Apprentice" sign spam?

There has really been an epidemic of these junk signs past year, and it's really gotten worse the past few months.

The signs come in many flavors, although the most typical is yellow coroplast with handwritten copy. There are also professionally printed signs (like the "Work From Home" junk Herbalife used to use).

The real estate investor signs are most frequently found staple-gunned to freeway off-ramp signs, and also in right-of-ways near shopping centers.

The following clip from a Wall Street Journal article seems verify that criminals are behind this street spam.

Given the thousands of illicit dollars the scammers stand to reap from a single illegal deal, it's no wonder the "Real Estate Investor Seeks Apprentice" signs are pften replaced within a day or so after they disappear.
=============================================================

Home Is Where the Mortgage Fraud Is

By ANDREA COOMBES
April 9, 2006

Once a nuisance to a handful of lenders, mortgage fraud has blossomed into one of the fastest-growing white-collar crimes in the country, putting innocent homeowners on the hook for overpriced houses and pushing up interest rates for all home loans.

In some cases, scammers buy dilapidated houses, get fake appraisals to inflate the value and sell the homes for far more than they're worth, industry experts say.

Or, fraudsters will find novice real-estate investors and convince them to sell their good name and credit record. In return, scammers promise to arrange a loan on an investment property, find tenants, make mortgage payments and sell the property for huge profits once it appreciates.

'Left Holding the Bag'

Instead, the fraudsters use the borrower's name on loan documents -- and then walk away with hundreds of thousands of dollars in loan proceeds. "No tenants are found, no rental payments are collected, no mortgage payments are made, the house goes into default -- turns out it's not worth anything -- and the borrower is left holding the bag and their credit is destroyed," says Rachel Dollar, a lawyer in Santa Rosa, Calif., who represents lenders in mortgage-fraud cases.

Or, identity thieves use stolen information to purchase properties in victims' names, pocketing the loan and leaving the victim and the lender to sort out the mess.

What Happens to Victims

For borrowers who become unwitting victims, the effects can be devastating, including losing a home through foreclosure once it's revealed the house is worth far less than the mortgage loan. This usually happens when the borrower goes to refinance or sell and a true appraisal is done.

Local homeowners may feel another pinch: A neighborhood where some houses have falsely inflated appraisals can lead to higher tax bills for all, as happened in one Atlanta neighborhood, says Tim Doyle, senior director of government affairs at the Mortgage Bankers Association. Later comes another problem: "They'll hit four or five properties in one small area, the properties will get foreclosed upon and get boarded up," he says. "That affects other people's property values."

"It's 10 p.m. Do you know what Dumpster your street spam is sleeping in?"