Reverse Mortgage marketing on the web contains it’s fair share of misinformation and in its most popular form it is the scam article. Looking for reverse mortgage information on the internet has become easier in recent years but I’m sorry to see the results of these searches has gone from informative article to web marketing traffic grabber. For example, the search “Reverse Mortgage Scam” returns 689,000 pages on Google but they are not all about scams and many of them are not factual. It seems there is a growing trend to exaggerate or just plain lie about reverse mortgage scams to garner attention and use that attention to, well, sell reverse mortgages. The scams they tell about range from telemarketers calling on folks to ask them for personal information that can be used to steal their identity to outright accusations of the loan itself being a scam. I am not going to be so naive as to say that some types of reverse mortgage fraud have never occurred but you may be surprised to know they are less likely than what the web is all ablaze about.
There are three types of reverse mortgage scam articles you’ll need to look out for. First there is the factual story of a convicted felon who robbed a borrower of their reverse mortgage proceeds. I have no beef with that report, that’s just good journalism. Next there is the reverse mortgage scam article that was written to scare people and gain some notoriety, usually on the internet. This type of scam article is usually published by a company that sells reverse mortgages and they have a knack of twisting the article around 180 degrees from “reverse mortgage scam” to end finally with “reverse mortgage benefits” and “call us here.” Lastly and most famously, there is the reverse mortgage scam scare article that was written purely out of desperation to post an article on the subject and the assumption that it must be a bad idea and of course everyone who does a reverse mortgage puts their whole family at risk, or something of that nature. This is the worst kind of misinformation because it is usually all here-say and no evidence. I know this because I spend a bit of time writing to these authors and sometimes they respond back that they really didn’t know anything about the subject and relied upon some third party for all of the information in the article. Can you believe that I recently got that answer from a large metropolitan newspaper? Nice.
Let’s face it, reverse mortgages have been a favorite punching bag for journalists of all types for the simple fact that they are a financial product used by home owners age 62 and older. Many of them write a gratuitous, negative reverse mortgage article at some time because they know it will get them some attention and the issue that they don’t have their facts straight is just a minor consequence. Now that we are able to pick out a scam scare article when we see one, let’s discuss the next issue that’s bothering me about reverse mortgage journalism and marketing. The age factor. When you turn age 62 are you really no longer able to handle your finances? Are you “elderly?” Read my next article, “Reverse Mortgages for the Elderly.”
Michael Manfredi is a Reverse Mortgage Specialist
(602) 456-0009
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
