SANTA CLARITA / ANTELOPE VALLEY : Authorities Seek More Victims of Antelope Valley Rent Scam : Crime: Quake-displaced family and a blind woman are among those tricked into paying on foreclosed homes.

Authorities are searching for more victims of an Antelope Valley ring that allegedly tricked Southern California residents into paying thousands of dollars in rent on homes in foreclosure by out-of-town banks.

It is unknown how many people were taken in by the scam. People who lost their homes in the Northridge earthquake and low-income residents in the San Fernando Valley, riot-torn areas and San Bernardino were apparently targeted.

Apparent victims so far include an earthquake-displaced family and a legally blind woman who was told she had purchased a home using her life savings of $7,300 as a deposit. The woman, who is raising a blind child, has no money and now faces eviction.

Mary Louise Johnson of Palmdale, thought to be the front woman for a fraud ring involving an undetermined number of associates, pleaded not guilty last week to three counts of grand theft by false pretense. She is in custody in lieu of $500,000 bail. Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in Antelope Municipal Court.

Johnson, who also goes by the name Mary Thedford, represented herself as the owner of several foreclosed homes and rented them to people, said Detective Jan Carroll of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s forgery-fraud detail. A search warrant was served July 8 at Johnson’s Oxford Drive home, where deputies found documents pertaining to several residences.

“We have a couple of milk crates full of files on homes, each of which we have to look into,” Carroll said.

Johnson would canvass communities for information about abandoned homes and learn from neighbors which houses had absentee landlords and had been foreclosed by faraway banks, Carroll said.

“In this valley, there are hundreds of homes empty due to foreclosure because of the departure of the aircraft industry,” Carroll said, calling the area “a cherry patch for fraud.”

As part of the scam, Carroll said, Johnson would pay the former owner $1,000 for a quit-claim, allowing her to take over the deed and restart utility services, and would change the locks on the residence.

Under the name of BYOA Properties, a nonexistent real estate operation, Johnson advertised for renters after making minor improvements such as painting the abandoned buildings, Carroll said. Homes were rented at competitive prices and applicants were told to fill out credit forms and lease agreements.

Tenants paid a security deposit and rent for several months. Early eviction notices they received were explained as oversights by the bank, Carroll said.

Thousands of dollars were usually collected before the fraud was discovered--sometimes only when sheriff’s deputies arrived and told tenants their rental agreement was invalid.

Real estate officials say renters have few ways to avoid such a scam.

“I don’t know what they could have looked for,” admitted Carlene Lampela, vice president of the Antelope Valley Board of Realtors. “We’re basically pretty trusting. You try the best you can and sometimes you can still get (swindled).”

Lampela said renters should talk to neighbors to determine who owns a home and if it has been either vacant for a long time or rundown. They can also ask a title company for a property profile, which would show if a home has a large, outstanding mortgage from a foreclosure.

“Some of these people are so slick, there’s not much you can do,” Lampela said.

Sheriff’s detectives certainly consider Johnson slick.

Johnson, who is in her 50s, told renters she attends a prominent San Fernando Valley church, even featuring an icthys--the Christian fish symbol-- on her business cards.

“The woman is very good,” said a relative of an alleged victim. “She had all the right answers. It wasn’t until the very end when she was backed into a corner that she came out fighting.”

When Johnson’s bail was set at $100,000 following her arrest July 8, she posted the money two days later through a bail bonds agency. The collateral for the bond was a deed for a home Johnson doesn’t own, Carroll said.

Representatives of the bail bonds agency brought Johnson back into custody July 13 with a ruse, telling the woman she would be released on her own recognizance and could collect the $5,000 posted for the bond.