When you\’re behind on your mortgage payments you\’re probably already stressed and worried beyond anything you could have imagined before. There\’s nothing quite like the risk of losing your home to wake you up to the realities of life. An additional problem for homeowners is the fact that all of these distressed mortgages are bringing scammers out from underneath their rocks in droves.
It\’s an unfortunate fact of life that there are always scammers out there looking to take advantage of people when they\’re at their most vulnerable, and presenting worried homeowners with \”easy\” ways of dealing with their mortgage debt is one way to get people to believe the unbelievable. Basically these guys are preying on you when you\’re at your most vulnerable.
Here are some of the more common mortgage scams doing the rounds at the moment:
Mortgage Audits
This scam is where the company or individual claims to be aware of loopholes in your mortgage documentation or contract, which they can then use to force your lender(s) to approve a mortgage modification on your terms. You can expect these guys to mention fees of between $1,000 and $5,000, none of which will ever be repaid under any circumstances.
Class Action
In this scam the conmen will claim that a class action is being brought against a lender because they\’re suspected of wrongdoing in relation to their mortgage loans, and that you might be entitled to a full or partial refund of any mortgage payments you\’ve made. Oddly enough there are even some legitimate law firms getting in on this act and asking their clients for around $2,000 each. Now $2,000 might not seem like money worth chasing for a scammer but literally thousands of people are falling for this scam every single month – that\’s millions in the bank for the conmen.
Fake Mortgage Counselors
These guys are literally going door-to-door knowing that every other home they visit anywhere in the United States is going to have some kind of mortgage issue they can discuss with them. In other cases they just visit every occupied home in a ghost housing development and offer their mortgage counseling service there instead. All you need to do is pay them around $5,000 for the privilege of having them modify your existing mortgage agreement with your lender – saving you hundreds per month on your mortgage in turn.
You can get mortgage counseling completely free of charge when offered by genuine not-for-profit companies, so there\’s absolutely no need at all to pay for mortgage counseling regardless of your current financial situation. When it comes to debt consolidation, mortgage modification or renegotiation, or any kind of financial service, you only need to remember one thing: If it sounds too good to be true then we can assure you that it is too good to be true. When it comes to financial services there is no such thing as a free lunch.