On Your Side: Mortage Fraud

WRDW.com ^ | 2/23/2007 | Jeff Anderson

[ex-Texan]

Actually, the correct term is 'mortgage servicing fraud.' It is even worse when the mortgage company passes the responsibility on to a third party corporation. Proving you have been defrauded is very tough. It is even tougher when the lender has hired a scam artists to hide your payments in an internal accounting maze. Without your cancelled checks showing proof of payment, you do not have a chance. Learn more about this loan servicing fraud?

Mortgage companies have the courts lined up to rubber stamp foreclosure actions swiftly. It is almost an automatic process in some states.

Mortgage lenders often claim 'mistake' as an excuse after they have been caught in television investigations. Just like Bubba Clinton: "I made a mistake," this excuse gets lots of winks.

[ex-Texan]

*Ping*!

[FairOpinion]

"Shirley's attorneys eventually advised her to sell her house"

I know this is not the point of the article, but this was an incredibly stupid advice. She owed 7-8000 in late fees, but she had to pay that anyway AND she lost on selling the house, whereas, if she just paid it and kept the house, the house would keep appreciating. She could have refinanced or taken out a second to cover the late fees, if she didn't have the cash.

[Shimmer128]

ack ping

[ex-Texan]

You cannot refinance a house after your mortgage company reports that kind of bogus history (late payments for eight years). But if a person were able to refinance, the interest rate would be very high. The lender totally shafted her. I assume the woman wants to sue Countrywide Mortgage for monetary damages plus several million in punitive damages.

[goldstategop]

See more here:

Morgage Service Fraud Org

This is an informative site about morgage servicing fraud and what consumers can do to fight it.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[veryconernedamerican]

If they refunded and called it a mistake it would be removed from the credit bureaus as well. A letter from the creditor admitting error is all you need to have something removed from your credit file.

[goldstategop]

When they have high priced lawyers, good luck. Even when you make your payments on time and have canceled checks or receipts to prove payment, unscrupulous mortgage servicers still tack on all kinds of fees and run up charges and so forth and then they foreclose. There's a lot of this mortgage servicing fraud, especially in the subprime lending markets. A lot of it is just greed.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[goldstategop]

There was a case involving 65 year old Melba Gillean in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ameriquest got socked with a 6.3 million dollar veedict due to outright mortgage servicing fraud. A twist in the case is they demanded payments for loan proceeds that were never disbursed and they destroyed this woman's credit rating by filing falsified delinquency reports with the credit reporting bureaus despite the fact she paid her loans on time. So in this industry you have white collar criminals who just manipulate the law to scoop up cash and drive people out of their homes. Its extremely difficult to win against these crooks in suits. But at least some people are standing up to their rip-offs.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[I still care]

Once my mortgage company sold my mortgage to another company. When I tried to pay it off, they told me, "they don't allow people to pay off mortgages unless they come into the office personally."

Being the company was 1400 miles away, this was ridiculous.

Another bank insisted we send payments to Brooklyn, but wouldn't credit them until the Brooklyn office sent them to Atlanta. We always used to send certified because they would always lie about when they recieved payment. After they did the Atlanta thing, we would send payments out over a month early and they still would insist they were late.

[ex-Texan]

That report is very common. I have heard about other cases in which lenders refuse to issue a deed after the home is paid off. Some mortgage lenders view the loan as lifetime servitude. Reality is far different than most people realize.

[Cacique]

BTT

[goldstategop]

There's another good Internet resource on predatory lending and mortgage servicing fraud here:

Center For Responsible Lending

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[goldstategop]

A lot of people have fully documented payments and this is the only industry in which customer service is unknown. Even when they still get paid, predatory lenders don't care. And weary homeowners are left holding the bag.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Farmer Dean]

Sounds like it's only a matter of tome before one of these companies shafts the wrong person and ends up with a crazed gunman killing a lot of people at the home office.

[pandoraou812]

Our house was paid off but we wanted to do some remodeling. We went to Citibank & got a loan. We realized we needed more money & would get a better deal with CitiFinancial. Got the loan and then the problems began. We kept getting calls from Citibank saying we were behind in our payments but CitiFinancial had paid that loan off. Then Citibank tried to tell us we hadn't had insurance on the house which was BS big time. They were calling us everyday with threats of foreclosure. We finally got it all fixed but I am watching them closely. I don't trust them and we intend to pay it off asap. It took a lot of work to clear it up and they were not at all understanding. The worst part is that both companies belong to Citigroup. Shaking my head again...

[Abogado]

"I assume the woman wants to sue Countrywide Mortgage for monetary damages plus several million in punitive damages."

She likely has one of those draconian arbitration clauses buried in the numerous forms and probably cannot sue them in any court, do any real investigation, recover attorney fees, join in a class-action or obtain punitive damages. Plus she would also likely have to pay thousands of dollars to have the matter heard by the mortgage companies chosen arbitrators. The Federal Arbitration Act: real good for some companies...

[sionnsar]

ping

[ex-Texan]

Another mortgage company is shut down in Arizona over consumer fraud allegations. This company had 75 branch offices:

Eagle First Mortgage Shut Down

Who is going to buy all those overpriced houses with all the fraudsters shut down?

[Calpernia]

bump