ORLANDO, Fla. -- Many advertisements promising easy ways out of foreclosure have hidden agendas and could end up costing homeowners who pursue them, according to a Local 6 News investigation.

The report featured Central Floridian Michelle Briscoe, who was out of a job and behind on her mortgage when she said she agreed to an 11th-hour deal to save her Orange County home.

Briscoe said the deal was signed in the offices of America Home Mortgage in Longwood, according to the report. Her $200,000 mortgage was paid as promised, but the home was reappraised at $342,000, the report said.

"After the mortgage was paid, the investor pocketed the equity and Michelle never got a dime," Local 6's Mike Holfeld said. "It is what the industry calls equity stripping."

"There's nothing that could have prepared me for this, nothing," Briscoe said.

Veteran attorney Austin Aaronson is fighting the equity stripping issue for more than a dozen people.

"Once that happens, the victim is beyond the point of help," Aaronson said. "You cannot go back and undo what has already happened."

Aaroson said he has tracked a pattern of deception that appears to leave out the investor's real motive.

Holfeld reported that Julie Bulled was "blindsided" by equity stripping.

"She lost the rights to her home and $60,000 in equity," Holfeld said.

Local 6 confirmed that the deal she signed was brokered by America Home Mortgage.

"I didn't think I was losing my home," Bulled said. "I thought I was saving my house from foreclosure."

Richard Peek Jr., who is the president of the Central Florida chapter of the Florida Association of Mortgage Brokers, said so-called foreclosure bailout products sold by companies like American Home Mortgage are nothing but fakes, Holfeld reported.

"I wouldn't even call it a product," Peek said. "It's a scheme to perpetrate fraud. You have unfortunately found individuals who are unscrupulous in their practices, and they're willing to take advantage of everybody and anybody that they can."

Holfeld brought his findings to state Rep. Bryan Nelson of Apopka. Nelson is co-sponsoring legislation that will create criminal penalties for equity deception schemes.

"The mortgage brokers are all behind this," Nelson said. "They want this to stop because they have a legitimate business and legitimate concerns, and they need these people out of business."

Reported incidents of similar mortgage schemes have popped up across the country.

Lawmakers in Maryland, Minnesota and Georgia have already created new legislation targeting deceptive practices tied to equity stripping.

America Home Mortgage denied repeated requests for interviews, Holfeld reported.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.