Look out, the stranger on the phone warned. They’re coming for you.
The caller had Janelle Duncan’s attention. Perpetually peppy at 53, with sparkly jewelry and a glittery manicure, Duncan was running a struggling Florida real estate agency with her husband, Doug. She began each day in prayer, a vanilla latte in her hand and her Maltese Shih Tzu, Coco, on her lap, asking God for business to pick up. She’d answered the phone that Friday morning in January hoping it would be a new client looking for a home in the Tampa suburbs.
The man identified himself as a debt counselor. He described a bizarre legal proceeding that he said was targeting Duncan without her knowledge. A lender called ABC had filed a court judgment against her in the state of New York and was planning to seize her possessions. “I’m not sure if they already froze your bank accounts, but they are RIGHT NOW moving to do just that,” he’d written in an email earlier that day. He described the lender as “EXTREMLY AGGRESSIVE.” Her only hope, the man said, was to pull all her money out of the bank immediately.
Read on. (Hat tip from Bloomberg)
How Confessions of Judgment Work
Small Business
Wants a loan
The Confession
Borrower signs a confession of judgment as part of the application, agreeing to lose any dispute
Lender
Sends money to borrower
The Dispute
Borrower misses a payment, or so the lender claims
County Clerk
Lender sends confession to clerk,
who rubber-stamps it
New York City Marshal
Demands money from borrower’s bank
Bank
Hands money over to lender
Lender
Gets money back, with interest and fees tacked on.