This was on  www.redding.com today, and it is important that this word gets out.....

Everett and Delores Dale knew something wasn't right when two men pulled up to their Enterprise-area home one day unannounced and told them they needed to get out.

Though the couple had lost their home to foreclosure on Sept. 2, the bank had not given the Dales a move-out date.

But the men in the pickup were persistent. They advised the Dales they were representing Bank of America and would return in two days to change the locks, 80-year-old Delores Dale recalled.

The Dales would later learn they nearly became victims of a scam popular in Southern California.

Posing as bank employees, the scammers go to a foreclosed home and give the occupant an ultimatum. Often, the victim will get scared and move out, leaving the house vacant. The scammers either move in or rent out the house until the bank catches on.

"In general, somebody who is being removed from the home - whether it's a squatter or a long-term tenant - there is a legal process the property owner must go through," said Redding attorney Tom Andrews, who specializes in elder and real estate law. "They (the owner) can't use self-help and they just can't show up on the doorstep and say, ‘You have to leave now.' "

Everett Dale, 81, said he became especially suspicious when the men couldn't give him a name of a bank official.

"I told them, ‘You're contracting with Bank of America and you don't have a name?' " said Everett Dale, a retired AT&T employee.

The Dales, who've lived in their house 12 years, called the bank and eventually spoke with an attorney in Southern California who told them about the scam. They were told the culprits hunt for victims by using foreclosure notices printed in newspapers.

The Dale's 44-year-old son, Veldon, said his parents had talked to so many people, in an attempt to save their house from foreclosure, that they were still seeking answers when the men showed up at their house.

"When you keep calling to try to get somebody and can't get an answer, it's real easy for a scam artist to step in and suddenly have the answer," Veldon Dale said.

The foreclosure process starts with a notice of default. That is followed 90 days later with a notice of sale, with the date the home will be sold at a public auction.

"After the sale date, the new owner can start eviction proceedings by sending a notice of quit," said Evan Westrup, a spokesman with the state Office of the Attorney General. "If somebody comes to the door claiming to be from the bank and telling the homeowner to leave, then the homeowner should demand proof that the bank now owns the home."

The proof certainly would have a contact number for the bank or the financial institution's attorney, Westrup noted.

Westrup explained that the scenario the Dales described is a scam that has appeared in a number of forms in areas affected by the foreclosure crisis throughout California.

"In that respect, local officials and the DA (district attorney) have often been the lead agencies," Westrup said.

An investigator with Shasta County's real estate fraud protection unit, created July 1, said Monday the office had not had any complaints about the scam that nearly victimized the Dales.