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DC Area Residents, Beware of Mortgage Fraud

  • July 9th 2009

by Mark Wellborn

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DC Area Residents, Beware of Mortgage Fraud: Figure 1

Mortgage fraud is on the rise in the DC area. In her Local Address blog, Elizabeth Razzi points to a recent FBI report that shows Maryland as one of ten states in the country with the most mortgage fraud, and DC as a place that has an increasing number of fraud issues.

According to the blog, those perpetrating the fraud send flyers to homes that are in danger of foreclosure with claims that they can help the homeowner stop the process. A $1,500 to $5,000 fee is then required from the homeowner that will go towards their mortgage being renegotiated, and will help get their monthly expenses reduced. If that doesn’t sound shady enough, here is more from the FBI report via Local Address:

“Perpetrators often request that the victim homeowners stop payments and communication with their lender. When victims receive delinquency and foreclosure notices, the perpetrators convince them that the loan was renegotiated, but that the lender needs a good faith payment to secure the new account.”

Who knows where the money for the “good faith payment” goes, but we suspect that it is not going to the lender.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.production.logicbrush.com/articles/blog/dc_area_residents_beware_of_mortgage_fraud/1116.

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