Foreclosures are Happy Breeding Ground for Modification Scams
Photo by Respres
Foreclosures have become happy breeding ground for scams relating to mortgage modification. The crisis has enveloped the entire country and there are signs of another epidemic – scams. The hapless house owners are being targeted by vultures trying to take away from them whatever little they have left over following the crisis years; even their houses are at jeopardy.
The Deputy Special Inspector General of TARP, Christy Romer, is in charge of monitoring potential fraud. During the early part of December his agency, (SIGTARP) teamed up with the Treasury and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to sniff out and tackle scams that are targeting the house owners who are anxious to modify their mortgages under HAMP (Home Affordable Modification Program).
An amount totaling to $29.9 billion from TARP has been kept apart for various programmes of the federal government for prevention of foreclosures. It does not need money to apply for HAMP and the advice given by the HUD approved counselors are also free. But despite this the scammers have persuaded the house owners to give them fees; in return are given false promises regarding lowering of debt on mortgage dues.
Some other cheats have crafted a shrewd strategy by which they take over the deeds of the properties by telling them to stop making any payments on their mortgages; often they were advised not to have any truck with the mortgage servicers.
These fraudsters, artists in their line, boldly advertise their services over the Internet, television and also the radio. Their stationeries flaunt government logos and the names they use smack of government departments. They also resort to scare tactics.
Oakland County treasurers, Andy Meisner said, “The last thing a family facing foreclosure needs is a scam artist picking their pockets and making the situation worse, when all they’re trying to do is dig out”.
House owners with mortgages numbering millions are threatened with loss of their properties. From January till November last year (2011) 756,407 borrowers across America were served with default notice, 742649 houses were taken over by the lenders according to RealtyTrac; in Michigan 51,354 houses were repossessed.
An assistant of Wayne County corporation Jamele Hage, who administers the Mortgage Foreclosure Prevention Program of the county said one of the scammers included the words ‘Wayne County’ in their name to give the stamp of the enterprise being official. They target the elderly and the ailing to get their signatures on documents.
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