As Foreclosure Research has reported since its inception, foreclosure statistics have proven to be illusive by nature. Not one foreclosure reporting company will have the same figure for a given period of time. While the statistics as a whole may be far from exact, at least there is factual data behind the listings. However, for some online listings companies that is not always the case. Some companies actually use the illusive nature of foreclosures in their favor in order to deceive users by aggregating misleading and false information.

In this case, Foreclosure World is a main conspirator. There have been various news articles and exposés on the fraudulent practices of Foreclosure World (parent company ForeclosureStore.com) and all of their online aliases. In Ripoff Report alone, an online BBB of sorts, there are almost 50 complaints for Foreclosure World.

In one Ripoff Report complaint, Brian, of Oxford New Jersey, had given the company $7,435.00 in return for real estate coaching. Apparently the company never sent the full package and upon Brian’s questioning the company said it had sent “bad products” and they would send better ones. Brian has yet to hear from the company again.

One of the many complaints regarding their dubious listings comes from Hevyn in Ocean City, Maryland. Hevyn wrote that that not only did the house photos not match the particular property address but the photos were not even of homes in that respective city. She continued, “I was appalled to see how fake it was… I knew there were no large, snow-covered front lawns on Coastal Highway in Ocean City, Maryland.”

Most of the Ripoff Report complaints from Foreclosure World customers stated they were unwittingly charged $297.00 for the “trial products” even when the products were returned. Customers were never able to contact a customer service representative to refund the money or inquire into the charge.

Just from the customer service front and ambiguous charging methods alone, one can assume that Foreclosure World is a deceptive business. A complete analysis into the Foreclosure World site will be available in Part II of, “The Underbelly of an Online Listing Provider.”