'My House. My Dream. It Was All an Illusion.'

"This is emblematic of people preying on their own and emblematic of bad brokers, but also emblematic of legitimate financial institutions either helping this happen or ignoring some facts so they can make a lot of money," said Alys Cohen, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center. "The problem is the system and that no one cares until Wall Street stops making money. And that's what's happening now."

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Glenda Ortiz, 40, had been struggling for nine years, since the day she fled Hurricane Mitch in Honduras and arrived in the United States to find her "own little piece of soil." She dreamed that owning a home would bring her scattered family together. She fantasized about being able to bring home the daughter she'd left behind as an infant. "I know her only from photographs," she said wistfully. "I wanted a future for my family, for my children."

Ortiz, who speaks little English, said she didn't know much about the U.S. banking system. So when a Mary Kay saleswoman, Maria Esperanza Salgado, came to her door and said she could help her buy a house, Ortiz said, she believed her.

Salgado had a business card with a blue Realtor logo identifying herself as a "sales assistant" to real estate agent Jorge Aguilar. Salgado is not licensed with the Virginia Real Estate Board. Aguilar said Salgado "was a very good sales promoter." He said he paid her $500 for every referral she brought him, although board regulations prohibit paying commissions or referral fees to anyone but a licensed real estate agent. Salgado said he gave her only "gifts." Aguilar said Salgado no longer works for him.

When Ortiz protested that she and her husband didn't have good credit and had only a few thousand dollars in savings, Ortiz said Salgado, whom she had known for less than a year, promised to help her.

Ortiz said she and Salgado came up with a plan. They would buy the house jointly, using Salgado's credit rating. Salgado also would pay half of the $11,000 down payment. The agreement is spelled out in court papers Ortiz has filed.

In a year, when the house had increased in value, as they assumed it would in the hot market, Ortiz would refinance. Ortiz said they had planned to take out $70,000 in equity, half of which she would pay Salgado for her share of the down payment and for allowing Ortiz to use her credit. Salgado would remove her name from the title, and Ortiz would own the house outright, according to the court documents.

But on the day of the closing in August 2005, Salgado's brother Saul Salgado Hernandez showed up to sign the papers. Ortiz said that she was surprised but that she figured Salgado knew what she was doing. She said she did not understand any of the papers in the thick stack of documents that she signed, not even the one that said she and Hernandez were married. "I signed the papers," she said. "I didn't notice." She also discovered that the woman handling her mortgage was Aguilar's wife.

Maria Salgado said she agreed to lend Ortiz the down payment money and use her brother's credit to buy the house because Ortiz was her "best friend."

"She wanted to buy a house. I wanted to help her," Salgado said. Her own credit was not good enough to help Ortiz, but that of her brother, a construction worker, was, she said.

"I asked my brother to help my best friend," Salgado said. She confirmed that she and Ortiz had planned to remove Hernandez's name from the title after one year. But Salgado said she did not agree to refinance.