{"id":7944,"date":"2010-01-22T08:11:37","date_gmt":"2010-01-22T13:11:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=7944"},"modified":"2010-01-22T08:13:27","modified_gmt":"2010-01-22T13:13:27","slug":"slavery-to-sovereignty-scam-targets-immigrants-african-americans-in-twin-cities-twin-cities-daily-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=7944","title":{"rendered":"Vultures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>David Kaplan, writing at the <em>Daily Planet<\/em>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tcdailyplanet.net\/news\/2010\/01\/16\/slavery-sovereignty-scam-targets-immigrants-twin-cities\">is onto yet another mortgage modification scam:<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>With the foreclosure rate in the metro area still soaring, struggling homeowners face a new and more sinister threat &#8211; unscrupulous scam artists.\u00a0 With ads claiming they can help you keep your home while eliminating your mortgage and property tax, a group calling themselves &#8220;Slavery to Sovereignty&#8221; is the latest in a long line to take advantage of residents who are desperate for help.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And yes, this one <em>is <\/em>aimed at the most scam-vulnerable:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>At least one ad from the group ran in a newspaper that reaches a largely-immigrant audience, but the small group that gathered at Sabathani Center on January 9 appeared to be a mix of local African American residents as well as recent immigrants.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Perhaps worst of all?\u00a0 The alleged scammers are retired &#8220;public servants&#8221;:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>People listened eagerly and had many questions as Peter &#8220;PJ&#8221; Johnson, a retired Minneapolis Parks Police Officer, and his partner Abagail Conley spoke.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson and Conley claimed they could eliminate participants&#8217; mortgages and all tax liabilities in return for $12,500.\u00a0 Mr. Johnson said the program would take anywhere from six months to three years, but was quick to point out that there were no guarantees.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Read the whole thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Kaplan, writing at the Daily Planet, is onto yet another mortgage modification scam: With the foreclosure rate in the metro area still soaring, struggling homeowners face a new and more sinister threat &#8211; unscrupulous scam artists.\u00a0 With ads claiming they can help you keep your home while eliminating your mortgage and property tax, a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-and-punishment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7944"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8089,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7944\/revisions\/8089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}