HELP for Distressed Homeowners and Those Facing Financial Challenges And/Or Mortgage Foreclosure

As you may know the Homeownership Preservation Foundation (HPF) operates the 888-995-HOPE Hotline to provide assistance to distressed homeowners.  A major component of our work is identifying and preventing scams.  As a proud partner of the national loanscamalert.org campaign, our national hotline as logged over 20,000 reported loan-related scams and the problem is getting worse.  Since December 2011, we have seen a 60 percent increase in reported loan scams.  A new trend is driving this increase in volume, scams that mimic new federal programs such as the OCC "Independent Foreclosure Review," the HAMP and HARP programs and the recently announced settlement between the states' Attorneys General and the major mortgage servicers.  I encourage you to share some of the most common warning signs of a potential scam with your constituents.  These warning signs include:

• Someone asking for money upfront
• Someone who guarantees a modification
• Someone who advises you to stop paying your mortgage
• Someone who suggests you hand over your deed to them
• Someone who claims to offer a government approved modification
• Someone you don't know asking for personal information

If you believe you may have been a victim of a mortgage related scam, please  call the 888-995-HOPE Hotline or log a complaint on www.loanscamalert.org. Since one of the biggest challenges facing homeowners is identifying who are the good actors and who are the potential scam artists.

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