Attacking foreclosure-rescue scams on more fronts
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The push to crack down on foreclose-rescue scams is coming from all quarters these days. Locally, latimes.com reports:
State Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown pledged Saturday to investigate and prosecute businesses that charge struggling homeowners fees to help get more favorable terms for repayment of their mortgage loans.’We have lawyers, we have investigators, and we will go after those who break the law by falsely representing what they can do,’ Brown said at a congressional hearing in South Los Angeles. Brown, a Democrat planning to run for governor next year, vowed to focus specifically on bogus television ads that lure homeowners into expensive mortgage consulting deals that are useless.’We will document the rip-offs that are over the mass media as best we can,’ he said.
On the federal level, part of the plan is to educate homeowners with theater ads. From the Wall Sreet Journal:
The Federal Reserve is coming soon to a theater near you. The subject won’t be the drama inside the central bank or its role in the current financial crisis. Rather, Fed officials plan to launch advertisements in movie theaters to warn homeowners about foreclosure scams. Intended to extend the reach of consumer warnings on the Fed’s website, the ads will run in 14 cities with high-foreclosure housing markets and an outbreak of scam artists charging for guidance that is free from nonprofits working with the government.
The point of both the local and federal efforts: Don’t pay for what you can get free and you won’t get ripped off.
—Lauren Beale
Thoughts? Comments?