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Administration Cracks Down on Foreclosure Schemes
April 06, 2009 8:17 AM
ABC News' Matthew Jaffe reports:
In recent months, the Obama administration has taken steps to stem the tide of home foreclosures, unveiling a $275 billion plan to address the housing crisis, but now officials must also find a way to stop foreclosure schemes that prey on struggling homeowners.
Today the administration will launch a multi-agency crack down on these schemes, with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Attorney General Eric Holder, and Housing & Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan announcing new measures at a Monday press conference in Washington.
According to an administration official, they will "announce new initiatives to coordinate information and resources across agencies to maximize targeting and efficiency in fraud investigations, alert financial institutions to emerging schemes, step up enforcement actions and educate consumers to help those in financial trouble avoid becoming the victims of a loan modification or foreclosure rescue scam."
Joining Geithner, Holder, and Donovan at the announcement will be Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
The new measures come on the heels of the administration's Making Home Affordable program, which allows servicers to help homeowners by modifying loans and refinancing.
The steps are the latest in the government's increasing efforts to stop foreclosure rescue scams and loan modification fraud. Today, the official told ABC News, at least 22 states are aggressively pursuing fraudulent foreclosure rescue firms.
This week the Federal Reserve will launch an unprecedented ad campaign in movie theaters to warn consumers about these scams.
The aids are designed to let people know that the Fed provides free information about foreclosure fraud.
The 30-second spot states, "Having trouble keeping up with your mortgage payments? Are you facing foreclosure? Before you do anything, you need to get information on how to avoid foreclosure scams. Don't get taken advantage of. It shouldn't hurt to get help. Go to FederalReserve.gov and click on 'Five Tips For Avoiding Foreclosure Scams'. Learn how to protect your home and avoid foreclosure fraud. It's information you can trust from the Federal Reserve. Go to FederalReserve.gov and click on 'Five Tips For Avoiding Foreclosure Scams'."
The ads will run in a total of 14 cities in the seven states hit hardest by foreclosures: California, Nevada, Florida, Arizona, Ohio, Michigan, and Georgia. In all, the ads will air in 28 theaters, hopefully reaching the homeowners who need it the most.
-- Matthew Jaffe
April 6, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (9)
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nothing will work unless they get the credit reporting and score system , and guidlines correct . The reports and score and guidelines is all the computer program at the banks will take . no problems and boy do we have them , will they look at.
Posted by: juliermiles | Apr 6, 2009 11:39:19 AM
And so it continues. Smear campaign on Loan modification companies who are the only ones helping homeowners right now.
Why would the government do this?
http://mandelman.newsvine.com/_news/2009/04/05/2643498-its-becoming-clearer-every-day-until-aha-gotcha
Posted by: Sperrys | Apr 6, 2009 12:36:41 PM
sperrys, many of these companies are NOT helping homeowners, they are ripping them off, insisting on getting thousands of dollars in up-front fees and then NOT getting loan modifications that are affordable at all. They are just sharks in the water, feeding on frightened people. I for one am glad to see the government moving quickly to nail these vultures before they do even more harm than they've done already.
Posted by: windrider | Apr 6, 2009 1:47:47 PM
Wow, I am thrilled as can be to see the Administration addressing the housing problems; like, people/families living in the many Tent Cities springing up all over the USA and the vast population of homeless military veterans.
Posted by: Percy | Apr 6, 2009 2:55:49 PM
Not much has worked so far to help the mortgage problem. This program seems to acknowledge not a lot of help coming soon and in the meantime, don't get taken, accept responsibilty and lots of luck sorting things out.
Posted by: Robert Urban | Apr 6, 2009 5:00:53 PM
The major scam has been created by the Federal Government.
There are definitely scam artists out there. Many of them started out attempting to help borrowers in trouble.
After a bit of experience, most of them found that the government programs such as "Help for Homeowners" were a complete shuck.
That one has been replace by a new plan, and the new plan is still a shuck.
A loan mitigation firm spends endless hours on the phone talking to lender personnel who are lying through their teeth. The mitigation firm sends in authorizations and financial documents and then are told that the documents never arrived.
At a certain point, the lender may come up with a mitigation plan. The plan itself is a shuck. It takes all of the fees and overdue payments and adds them on at the back end of the loan.
The plan does reduce the homeowner's payment for two or three years. In the long term, the lender gives up nothing and hopes to collect a wad of fees at some point in the future.
At this point, the loan mitigation firm is worn out and ground down. They tell the borrower that this is the best deal that he/she is going to get.
It is the best deal he is going to get, but it is not the deal that he should get.
The homeowner takes the deal, the mitigation is complete and the mitigation firm can now declare it a done deal.
Some of the mitigation firms simple give up, keep the money and screw the homeowner.
But the real con game was created by the representatives who pretended to give the borrower a break and gave him nothing.
Posted by: GM Pierce | Apr 6, 2009 10:38:04 PM
isn't it funny that the addministration has failed, and the Congress has been bought out, and there are now forcloser scams running. Where the heck is any help for the people that got cought up in the scams that got us into this mess. I just talked to my lawer yesterday, and there is nothing been passed, or on the table to help the home owner. We can bail out the thiefs, but the banks must have run enough models to show them that they would lose more money by letting judges reset our intrest rates then letting them forclose and maybe get half, if any of thier money back. We haven't seen the bottom yet, and the congress does squat. None of these is anywhere on the radar any longer. The BANKs have bought there way off again. And people will forget about this as it isn't in the lime light anylonger. Till they figure out the bottom is going to be a big black hole that swallows the whole shooting match. I need an iland to raise my son on, because there will be noplace here.
Posted by: HARLEY93 | Apr 7, 2009 2:01:29 PM
Maybe they should let Barney Frank tell them what a scam looks like. He has done such a good job scamming us all. Barney Frank needs his fannie roasted. Please!!!!!! He needs to be voted out now, along with Chris Dodd.
Posted by: ACTS238 | Apr 8, 2009 1:23:13 AM
Nice..
Eileen
======================
administration job
Posted by: administration job | Jun 18, 2009 3:11:52 AM
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