Blanca Maciel Sanchez, 37, promised to help distressed homeowners with their mortgages. but a Salinas police spokesman says she not only failed to help them, she allegedly also stole their identities to obtain credit for herself.

"She was using every form that she could as far as fraud," says Salinas PD spokesman Lalo Villegas.

Villegas says Maciel Sanchez, who did business as Maciel Financial Services and First Continental Mortgage, represented herself falsely as a realtor, CPA and mortgage broker, and illegally requested money in advance to modify mortgages.

She was arrested at her Arcadia Court home in Salinas Dec. 6 on charges of embezzlement, forgery, grand theft and mortgage fraud. Police report she also possessed narcotics at the time of the arrest.

Two victims led police to Maciel Sanchez. Villegas says officers believe she defrauded many others; he's  asking anyone with more information to call detectives at 758-7226 or anonymous tip lines at 831-775-4222 or 1-800-78-CRIME.