Hennepin Sues Foreclosure Scamming Firm

Posted in Foreclosure Scams, April 23rd, 2008 |

The Attorney General of Hennepin stated that some consulting firms have been duping foreclosure victims with promises of help. Six firms located outside the state have been charged by Hennepin County District Court. Injunction is being sought to prevent them from continuing with their business in Minnesota while the court proceedings are in progress. In the suits it is stated that these firms violated the laws of the state by raking in handsome fees for services they promised to deliver. But in reality they did nothing of the sort. As a result of this this foreclosed suffered intensely. More money and time was lost that ultimately led to the very thing they were trying to avoid – eviction.

Attorney General Lori Swanson commented that these firms ‘made a bad situation even worse.’ The companies were blatant enough to host websites advertising their claims. They also used direct mail services to make contacts with the house owners and sweet talked their way into the traumatized hearts of their prey. In each particular case these firms asked for consultation fees ranging from $1,000 to $,2,400. However they slowly made more demands matching further promises from clients who were already neck deep in debts facing and foreclosures.

These scammers approach at the point when the victim is first hit with the news of foreclosure when fear and despair traumatize sanity. Lonnie Sievert lost her house in Brooklyn Park to foreclosure. Her situation was made worse with these cheats. The trio against whom law suits were filed were National Foreclosure Relief of Nevada operating in California, Lewis Loss Mitigation of Alabama (using many names like American Foreclosure Specialists amongst others), also in California and Home Assure of Florida.

Each individual has a story to tell, Terry Lake is one. She has filed for bankruptcy in an effort to save her house. She gave something around $2,400 to one of the trio for this advice of filing bankruptcy. Another person, Lake, had more or less the same story to tell. Intuition had warned him that the promises were false and yet he got taken in by smart sales talk. To add sacrilege to injury the website of the American Foreclosure Specialists underlined the fact that the firm was run by Christians quoting lines from the Bible. One of the victims who chose this particular firm for its religious tone was Chantae Grandsberry of Brooklyn Centre.