Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
Struggling homeowners are being tricked by scammers into undertaking a forensic loan audit, in the hope that they can secure loan modifications to save their homes from being foreclosed on, reports AOL.
Scammers targeting homeowners in forensic loan audits - Image courtesy MARIEL SINCE 88 @ Flickr.com
A number of organizations which claim to be associated with well known auditors and attorneys have sprung up in the last couple of years, offering services for forensic loan audits. According to the Better Business Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission, complains about these types of companies have shot through the roof over the last 9 months.
The scam goes like this: the forensic auditors approach struggling homeowners, carry out a review of their documents, purportedly to see whether or not their mortgage lender had followed federal and state lending regulations, and then promise homeowners they can secure a quick loan modification and potentially even a reduction in their mortgage as well.
The catch? They need to pay an upfront fee – typically around $3,000.
And you can bet your bottom dollar you know what happens next… That’s right, usually not a thing. Hundreds of homeowners have complained that they hear nothing after the audit, they don’t get their loan modification, even if the ‘auditors’ discovered errors in their mortgage documents.
According to the Federal Trade Commission’s Josh Fuhrman:
"They lure consumers to believe that by hiring them for a review of a loan modification package, they can expedite the process and get better results, or they make false promises that they can get a loan mod or principal reduction. But homeowners are not typically getting any results. [Scammers] are just stringing [home owners] along, or they disappear."
