Dallas Has Its Share of Mortgage Ripoff
The government announced yesterday a multi-department effort to crack down on mortgage scams - pulling desperate people into phony modification programs, promising them ways to keep their home from foreclosure, then ripping them off. I asked Dallas bankruptcy attorney Rustin Polk if he has seen any evidence of this hanky-panky in Dallas — and he said unfortunately, yes. Too many: One client was working on a loan modification with a “loan counselor”, paid several fees and appraisals during a six month period of time. The lender went ahead and posted the home for foreclosure today. Yesterday at noon, the loan counselor said to his client, “Oh by the way, we just found out that your mortgage lender doesn’t do modifications.”
Another client paid a local “law firm” that advertises on a local Dallas radio station $3,000 to get his mortgage modified; the firms first piece of advice was to intentionally get behind on his mortgage. The mortgage company posted him for foreclosure, the modification people told him that they couldn’t help him. Now he now faces the prospect of losing his home if he does not pay three months of payments all at once, plus all of the bank’s legal fees related to the foreclosure, and he’s out the $3,000. What a scam.
Then there’s the “foreclosure rescue specialist” called North American Foreclosure, LLP. Folks need to be careful, says Polk, a bankruptcy attorney and home foreclosure expert for 15 years.
“Sadly, a person will try whatever they have to in order to keep their home and a roof over their kid’s head. And who can blame them?,” says Polk. “But a con artist can sense that kind of desperation. The number of so-called “loan modification counselors” has quadrupled in the last 18 months as the hucksters have opened up shop. These fly-by-night operators target desperate homeowners– the easiest mark, but also the least able to afford such a scam.”
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Get W on this, he’s not busy!!!!!