I have written on numerous occasions about the most despicable people on the planet, in my opinion, those scammer who prey on the desperation of homeowners who are about to lose their homes to foreclosure.  These “loan modification” or “foreclosure rescue” specialists or consultants took upfront money and made grandiose promises of keeping the homes from foreclosing, yet in most cases, did nothing to stop the process.

Many claimed to be attorneys or affiliated with attorneys, as if such affiliations meant they were more legitimate than those who had no such affiliation.  These scams had become so rampant that the California Department of Real Estate maintains a list of practitioners who are suspected of engaging in fraudulent manners and who have received desist and refrain orders.

On the national level, Congress has allocated funds to help fight these types of fraud. And California enacted similar laws to fight these heinous crimes against the vulnerable homeowners whose backs are against the wall.

But the crafty scammers manage to continually dupe homeowners into giving them money, without providing any services in return.

Well finally, someone refused to take it from these scammers and took the matter into their own hands.  Feeling nothing was being done on their behalf and being denied a refund, the couple kidnapped the scammers and tortured them.

Now I am not advocating violence against anyone, but you can certainly empathize with the frustration and the betrayal these people must have felt before resorting to such extreme measures.

What can we learn from this tragic situation?  Never ever give anyone money upfront to help you save your house. Any legitimate organization or person cannot take money first, but can only be paid if successful  service was provided first (at least here in California) .

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Finally, congress is waking up and doing something about the criminals who are taking advantage of consumers.   The fraud isn’t simply being perpetrated by greedy loan brokers run amok,  it also involves crooked lawyer aiding and abetting these criminals in their effort to extract money from trouble home owners.   The problem is that the organizations like the California Department of Real Estate and California Bar Association simply do not have sufficient man power to hire more investigators, attorneys and accounts  to look into allegations of fraud. With additional funding of $200 Million, more of these cases can be investigated at the local level and more of these crooked players can be taken off the streets.

Finally, Congress is doing something right on a bi-partisan level.

News Release

As I have been saying previously,  loan modification fraud is pervasive in these difficult times.   Everyone is trying to take advantage of distressed homeowners because they are desperate and are desperately seeking hope.  Hope sometimes in  the form of “attorney based ” operations who basically buy the names of hungry lawyers willing to gamble their licenses for a few bucks.  Well, some of those attorneys have finally been caught and are facing appropriate consequences.

This is fantastic news,  the California Bar Association is investigation its members, and the California Department of Real Estate is investigating its own members as well. It’s about time these licensing organizations finally did something  about reining in their corrupt members who were out there literally robbing these defenseless homeowners looking for hope.

Again, if we can simply warn the general public against giving up-front fees to people (whether they be lawyers, Realtors, loan brokers, etc….) who promise to do wonderful things on their behalf.  No service providing professional should receive a fee before they deliver their service. Even if these “specialists” are telling you they will give you a money back guaranty, do not fall for it.  Once they have your money, getting it back or having them refund it to  you will be an impossible task: much tougher than modifying your loan.