MVFHC, in collaboration with NFHA and partner agencies, releases report on mortgage loan modification scams

Download the report (PDF format)

April 6, 2011 — The Miami Valley Fair Housing Center (MVFHC), in conjunction with the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) and two other NFHA member agencies, has completed a year-long investigation of the mortgage modification and foreclosure prevention industry, releasing today a report entitled “Have I Got a Deal for You! An Undercover Investigation of Mortgage Loan Modification Scams.”

With funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development through its Fair Housing Initiatives Program, MVFHC, NFHA, the Connecticut Fair Housing Center and Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia worked collaboratively on a national scam investigation project that examined scamming techniques. From April 2010 through March 2011, the project identified more than 150 companies suspected of being scammers based on information from their websites and initial contact with company representatives. The partner organizations conducted 84 investigations including testing of 80 companies.

Don’t be fooled by a mortgage rescue scammer

Homeowners should avoid any companies that:

require advance fees for their services
promise to find an error in your loan documents that will force your lender to cancel or modify a loan
guarantee to stop foreclosure or to obtain a loan modification
advise you to stop making payments or to stop communicating with your lender

The investigation found that the market is rife with corrupt practices: firms are over-promising, under-delivering and charging for services that are readily available from non-profit organizations for free. Also, in a troubling trend, some companies are advising homeowners to commit acts of fraud against their lenders.

The report, available for download in PDF format, includes a brief description of the foreclosure crisis, the steps that MVFHC and its partners in the project took to investigate scammers, what they found, and the recommendations they propose to begin addressing this problem.