Fraud Awareness

Online mortgage modification scams

March 26, 2012

The Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) recently announced that it has shut down 85 alleged online mortgage modification scams that prey on vulnerable homeowners through Web banners and other Web advertisements.

SIGTARP investigates mortgage modification schemes in which companies charge struggling homeowners a fee in exchange for false promises of lowering the homeowner’s mortgage through TARP’s housing program known as the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). Google, in cooperation with an ongoing criminal SIGTARP investigation of these scams, has suspended advertising relationships with more than 500 Internet advertisers and agents associated with the 85 alleged online mortgage fraud schemes and related deceptive advertising.

: Fraud Awareness, Loan Modification

Foreclosure Scam: Watch Out for Phantom Help

March 18, 2012

By: Donna Fuscaldo

In the phantom help foreclosure scam, con artists promise you assistance, but they’re just helping themselves to your money.

Phantom helpers may target a neighborhood with a direct-mail campaign promising help for those facing foreclosure; but don’t get taken in by a scam. Few things are scarier than the prospect of losing your home to foreclosure. Scam artists know that and will test your vulnerability by offering “phantom help” as part of a foreclosure scam. Knowing the difference between legitimate help and a foreclosure scam can prevent you from losing your home.

How do they hook you?
Phantom helpers may blanket a hard-hit town or neighborhood with a direct mail campaign promising relief for those threatened by foreclosure. When you’re feeling desperate – and when panic sets in – good judgment goes out the door.

What do phantom scammers do to you?
Of course, just because they seek you out when you’re feeling vulnerable doesn’t mean you have to yield. A cool head and education are your best protection when foreclosure scam artists show up with reassuring words. They’ll start by telling you they can negotiate a deal with your lender – but they have no intention of doing so.

Instead, phantom help scammers may:

  • Isolate you, telling you not to contact your lender, lawyer, or a credit counselor.
  • Demand upfront fees.
  • Tell you to make all the mortgage payments to them instead of your mortgage firm – before they disappear.
  • Trick you into signing over the deed to your house and, when it’s too late to save the home, sell it for whatever they can get.
  • Use the government’s name to dupe you into making payments to them, by using official-sounding acronyms like “TARP” or official-looking website addresses.
  • Try to charge you for access to free government assistance.
  • Extract enough personal information to commit identity theft.

Educate yourself to protect yourself
Tip off: You never need to pay to find out about legitimate government programs. A housing counselor approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development can point you in the right direction – for free.

Other options:

  • For federal refinancing and loan modification help, check out the Making Home Affordable program.
  • Stay away from any firms that guarantee to stop your foreclosure, claim to have special relationships with banks, or offer money-back guarantees.
  • Watch out for unsolicited offers to refinance, especially from companies claiming government affiliations – these may well be foreclosure scam artists.
: Fraud Awareness

Better Business Bureau email scam

January 7, 2012

An email with the subject line “Complaint from your customers” is circulating and may be a scam, according to an urgent scam alert by the Council of Better Business Bureaus. The email appears to come from a Better Business Bureau employee about a recently filed complaint with the organization and tells recipients to review the matter and advise the organization of their position on the complaint. Recipients are directed to a link which the email claims will take the reader to the organization’s website. In fact, the link takes recipients elsewhere, where a virus is downloaded to their computer. An attachment in the email also may contain a virus. The Better Business Bureau has requested that recipients of the scam email alert the organization at https://www.bbb.org/scam/report-a-scam/

: Fraud Awareness

Taskforce created to combat HAMP scams

December 8, 2011

The Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and the U.S. Department of the Treasury today announced the creation of a joint task force to combat scams targeted at homeowners seeking to apply for the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). The joint task force today issued a consumer fraud alert to protect homeowners from HAMP-related mortgage modification scams.

If you are struggling to pay your San Diego mortgage and are seeking a mortgage modification, keep the following tips in mind:

 You can apply to the federal Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) on your own or with free help from a housing counselor approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Applying to the program is always FREE. For more information on how to apply, call the Homeowner’s HOPE™ Hotline at 1-888-995-HOPE (1-888-995-4673) or visit www.MakingHomeAffordable.gov.

 Only your mortgage servicer has discretion to grant a loan modification. Therefore, no third party can guarantee or pre-approve your HAMP mortgage modification application.

 Beware of anyone seeking to charge you in advance for mortgage modification services – in most cases, charging fees in advance for a mortgage modification is illegal.

 Paying a third party to assist with your HAMP application does not improve your likelihood of receiving a mortgage modification. Accordingly, beware of individuals or companies that ask you for payment and tout success rates or claim to be “experts” in HAMP.

 If an individual or company claims to be affiliated with HAMP or displays a seal or logo representing the U.S. government in correspondence or on the Web, you should check the connection by calling the Homeowner’s HOPE™ Hotline.

 Beware of individuals or companies that offer money-back guarantees.

 Beware of individuals or companies that advise you as

Sourced from SIGTARP.GOV

: Fraud Awareness, Loan Modification
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Tips for Avoiding Advanced Fee Schemes

November 3, 2011

An advance fee scheme occurs when the victim pays money to someone in anticipation of receiving something of greater value—such as a loan, contract, investment, or gift—and then receives little or nothing in return.

The variety of advance fee schemes is limited only by the imagination of the con artists who offer them. They may involve the sale of products or services, the offering of investments, lottery winnings, “found money,” or many other “opportunities.” Clever con artists will offer to find financing arrangements for their clients who pay a “finder’s fee” in advance. They require their clients to sign contracts in which they agree to pay the fee when they are introduced to the financing source. Victims often learn that they are ineligible for financing only after they have paid the “finder” according to the contract. Such agreements may be legal unless it can be shown that the “finder” never had the intention or the ability to provide financing for the victims.

Tips for Avoiding Advanced Fee Schemes:

If the offer of an “opportunity” appears too good to be true, it probably is. Follow common business practice. For example, legitimate business is rarely conducted in cash on a street corner.

  • Know who you are dealing with. If you have not heard of a person or company that you intend to do business with, learn more about them. Depending on the amount of money that you plan on spending, you may want to visit the business location, check with the Better Business Bureau, or consult with your bank, an attorney, or the police.
  • Make sure you fully understand any business agreement that you enter into. If the terms are complex, have them reviewed by a competent attorney.
  • Be wary of businesses that operate out of post office boxes or mail drops and do not have a street address. Also be suspicious when dealing with persons who do not have a direct telephone line and who are never in when you call, but always return your call later.
  • Be wary of business deals that require you to sign nondisclosure or non-circumvention agreements that are designed to prevent you from independently verifying the bona fides of the people with whom you intend to do business. Con artists often use non-circumvention agreements to threaten their victims with civil suit if they report their losses to law enforcement.

Travis Breton and Summit Realty Group believe that a large portion of fraud and scams can pe prevented simply by creating an public awareness of how fraud can be commited.

Information provided by fbi.gov

: Fraud Awareness, Loan Modification
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Tips for Avoiding Market Manipulation Fraud

September 15, 2011

As in Ponzi schemes, the money collected from newer victims of the fraud is paid to earlier victims to provide a veneer of legitimacy. In pyramid schemes, however, the victims themselves are induced to recruit further victims through the payment of recruitment commissions.

More specifically, pyramid schemes—also referred to as franchise fraud or chain referral schemes—are marketing and investment frauds in which an individual is offered a distributorship or franchise to market a particular product. The real profit is earned, not by the sale of the product, but by the sale of new distributorships. Emphasis on selling franchises rather than the product eventually leads to a point where the supply of potential investors is exhausted and the pyramid collapses. At the heart of each pyramid scheme is typically a representation that new participants can recoup their original investments by inducing two or more prospects to make the same investment. Promoters fail to tell prospective participants that this is mathematically impossible for everyone to do, since some participants drop out, while others recoup their original investments and then drop out.

Tips for Avoiding Pyramid Schemes:

  • Be wary of “opportunities” to invest your money in franchises or investments that require you to bring in subsequent investors to increase your profit or recoup your initial investment.
  • Independently verify the legitimacy of any franchise or investment before you invest.

Market Manipulation or “Pump and Dump” Fraud

This scheme—commonly referred to as a “pump and dump”—creates artificial buying pressure for a targeted security, generally a low-trading volume issuer in the over-the-counter securities market largely controlled by the fraud perpetrators. This artificially increased trading volume has the effect of artificially increasing the price of the targeted security (i.e., the “pump”), which is rapidly sold off into the inflated market for the security by the fraud perpetrators (i.e., the “dump”); resulting in illicit gains to the perpetrators and losses to innocent third party investors. Typically, the increased trading volume is generated by inducing unwitting investors to purchase shares of the targeted security through false or deceptive sales practices and/or public information releases.

A modern variation on this scheme involves largely foreign-based computer criminals gaining unauthorized access to the online brokerage accounts of unsuspecting victims in the United States. These victim accounts are then utilized to engage in coordinated online purchases of the targeted security to affect the pump portion of a manipulation, while the fraud perpetrators sell their pre-existing holdings in the targeted security into the inflated market to complete the dump.

Tips for Avoiding Market Manipulation Fraud:

  • Don’t believe the hype.
  • Find out where the stock trades.
  • Independently verify claims.
  • Research the opportunity.
  • Beware of high-pressure pitches.
  • Always be skeptical.

Summit Realty Group believes that a large portion of fraud and scams can pe prevented simply by creating an public awareness of how fraud can be commited.

Information provided by fbi.gov

: Fraud Awareness

Tips for Avoiding Prime Bank Note Fraud

September 8, 2011

International fraud artists have invented an investment scheme that supposedly offers extremely high yields in a relatively short period of time. In this scheme, they claim to have access to “bank guarantees” that they can buy at a discount and sell at a premium. By reselling the “bank guarantees” several times, they claim to be able to produce exceptional returns on investment. For example, if $10 million worth of “bank guarantees” can be sold at a two percent profit on 10 separate occasions—or “traunches”—the seller would receive a 20 percent profit. Such a scheme is often referred to as a “roll program.”

To make their schemes more enticing, con artists often refer to the “guarantees” as being issued by the world’s “prime banks,” hence the term “prime bank guarantees.” Other official sounding terms are also used, such as “prime bank notes” and “prime bank debentures.” Legal documents associated with such schemes often require the victim to enter into non-disclosure and non-circumvention agreements, offer returns on investment in “a year and a day”, and claim to use forms required by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). In fact, the ICC has issued a warning to all potential investors that no such investments exist.

The purpose of these frauds is generally to encourage the victim to send money to a foreign bank, where it is eventually transferred to an off-shore account in the control of the con artist. From there, the victim’s money is used for the perpetrator’s personal expenses or is laundered in an effort to make it disappear.

While foreign banks use instruments called “bank guarantees” in the same manner that U.S. banks use letters of credit to insure payment for goods in international trade, such bank guarantees are never traded or sold on any kind of market.

Tips for Avoiding Prime Bank Note Fraud:

  • Think before you invest in anything. Be wary of an investment in any scheme, referred to as a “roll program,” that offers unusually high yields by buying and selling anything issued by “prime banks.”
  • As with any investment, perform due diligence. Independently verify the identity of the people involved, the veracity of the deal, and the existence of the security in which you plan to invest.
  • Be wary of business deals that require non-disclosure or non-circumvention agreements that are designed to prevent you from independently verifying information about the investment.

Travis Breton believes that a large portion of fraud and scams can pe prevented simply by creating an public awareness of how fraud can be commited.

 

Information provided by fbi.gov

: Fraud Awareness
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Oceanside man among those sued in mortgage fraud case

August 29, 2011

California authorities are suing several attorneys and their marketers, including a 44-year-old Oceanside man, for allegedly defrauding thousands of U.S. homeowners who thought they were getting mortgage relief but instead lost money, and in some cases, their homes.

The lawsuit — filed by the California Department of Justice and the State Bar of California — says Clarence John Butt is among the “non-attorney defendants” in the lawsuit, which claims property owners were charged up to $10,000 to join “mass joinder lawsuits” against their mortgage lenders with the promise of staying foreclosures, loan reductions and monetary damages. Millions of dollars were involved, the case says.

Prosecutors said clients who paid to join the lawsuits, on which hundreds or more of plaintiffs were named, complained they were unable to get their questions answered and were consulted by sales agents instead of attorneys.

Butt could not be reached for a comment.

Other defendants in the lawsuit include Philip Kramer, his Calabasas-based Law Offices of Kramer & Kaslow, two other law firms, three more attorneys, and 14 others.

The Attorney General‘s Office placed Kramer’s firm and other defendants into receivership last week, essentially shutting down operations. Authorities also seized bank accounts in a case that involved 19 special agents with the state Department of Justice, and 42 agents and others from other agencies.

The lawsuit says the defendants mailed what appeared to be official materials to homeowners facing foreclosure in California and 16 other states, saying they could take part in a mass joinder lawsuit against mortgage lenders or loan servicers.

Many believed this would stop the foreclosure process or result in reductions in their loans and interest rates, authorities said.

The state Department of Justice has seized the practices of the following non-attorney defendants:

Attorneys Processing Center, LLC; Data Management, LLC; Gary DiGirolamo; Bill Stephenson; Mitigation Professionals, LLC; Glen Reneau; Pate Marier & Associates, Inc.; James Pate; Ryan Marier; Home Retention Division; Michael Tapia; Lewis Marketing Corp.; Clarence Butt; and Thomas Phanco.

The State Bar has seized the practices and attorney accounts of the attorney defendants:

The Law Offices of Kramer & Kaslow; Philip Kramer, Esq; Mitchell J. Stein & Associates; Mitchell Stein, Esq.; Christopher Van Son, Esq.; Mesa Law Group Corp.; and Paul Petersen, Esq.

Article Written by Lily Leung
: Carlsbad Real Estate, Fraud Awareness, Oceanside Real Estate, Real Estate News, San Diego Real Estate
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Tips for Avoiding Letter of Credit Fraud

August 25, 2011

Legitimate letters of credit are never sold or offered as investments. They are issued by banks to ensure payment for goods shipped in connection with international trade. Payment on a letter of credit generally requires that the paying bank receive documentation certifying that the goods ordered have been shipped and are en route to their intended destination. Letters of credit frauds are often attempted against banks by providing false documentation to show that goods were shipped when, in fact, no goods or inferior goods were shipped.

Other letter of credit frauds occur when con artists offer a “letter of credit” or “bank guarantee” as an investment wherein the investor is promised huge interest rates on the order of 100 to 300 percent annually. Such investment “opportunities” simply do not exist. (See Prime Bank Notes for additional information.)

Tips for Avoiding Letter of Credit Fraud:

  • If an “opportunity” appears too good to be true, it probably is.
  • Do not invest in anything unless you understand the deal. Con artists rely on complex transactions and faulty logic to “explain” fraudulent investment schemes.
  • Do not invest or attempt to “purchase” a “letter of credit.” Such investments simply do not exist.
  • Be wary of any investment that offers the promise of extremely high yields.
  • Independently verify the terms of any investment that you intend to make, including the parties involved and the nature of the investment.

Travis Breton and Summit Realty Group believe that a large portion of fraud and scams can pe prevented simply by creating an public awareness of how fraud can be commited.

Information provided by fbi.gov

: Fraud Awareness, Home Buying Tips
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Tips for Avoiding Identity Theft

August 19, 2011

Identity theft occurs when someone assumes your identity to perform a fraud or other criminal act. Criminals can get the information they need to assume your identity from a variety of sources, including by stealing your wallet, rifling through your trash, or by compromising your credit or bank information. They may approach you in person, by telephone, or on the Internet and ask you for the information.

The sources of information about you are so numerous that you cannot prevent the theft of your identity. But you can minimize your risk of loss by following a few simple hints.

Tips for Avoiding Identity Theft:

  • Never throw away ATM receipts, credit statements, credit cards, or bank statements in a usable form.
  • Never give your credit card number over the telephone unless you make the call.
  • Reconcile your bank account monthly, and notify your bank of discrepancies immediately.
  • Keep a list of telephone numbers to call to report the loss or theft of your wallet, credit cards, etc.
  • Report unauthorized financial transactions to your bank, credit card company, and the police as soon as you detect them.
  • Review a copy of your credit report at least once each year. Notify the credit bureau in writing of any questionable entries and follow through until they are explained or removed.
  • If your identity has been assumed, ask the credit bureau to print a statement to that effect in your credit report.
  • If you know of anyone who receives mail from credit card companies or banks in the names of others, report it to local or federal law enforcement authorities.

Summit Realty Group believes that a large portion of fraud and scams can pe prevented simply by creating an public awareness of how fraud can be commited.

Information provided by fbi.gov

: Fraud Awareness
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