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Couple Facing Foreclosure Fleeced By Company

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Nov 26, 2008 9:31 pm US/Eastern

Couple Facing Foreclosure Fleeced By Company

Reporting
Andy Sheehan
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Here and across the country, more and more people are falling behind on their mortgage payments and are facing foreclosure.

Desperate to stay in their homes, they turn to the Internet for help and with the click of a mouse, help seems to appear.

Cyberspace is chock full of these so-called foreclosure help businesses.

Stephanie and her husband have been unable to keep current on their mortgage payment which carries a 12 percent interest rate.

Three months ago, they gave a Florida foreclosure help company $2,800 in hopes the company could convince their lender to modify their loan.

Sheehan: "What did they accomplish for you?"

Stephanie: "Nothing."

Stephanie says the company assured her of a 90 percent chance of a modified loan, but three months later her lender told them that wasn't in the cards.

Now the company won't return her calls and has reneged on their money-back guarantee.

"I can't even get a call back, much less money back," Stephanie said.

Like dozens of other stories he's heard, Dan Sullivan of Action Housing says these mortgage help businesses are nothing but scam companies springing up all over the country.

"They'll rent out a building for two to three months, set up a website real quick - make it look very official," Sullivan said.

But, he says they really don't do any work on their client's behalf. They merely see an opportunity to prey on people in their hour of need with the promise of keeping them in their homes.

"And then to prop their hopes up like that and then pull the rug from under them is just despicable. It's just terrible," Sullivan said.

Organizations like Action Housing provide free counseling and will try to intercede on behalf of some borrowers to get lower interest rates and modified loans.

"You shouldn't shell out a single cent to a third party to help find a resolution to this," Sullivan notes.

Stephanie and her husband are still fighting to save their home but are $2,800 poorer in that fight. But she'd like these companies exposed.

"It's wrong and it somehow should be stopped," she said.

Now I checked with the Florida Attorney General and there are 13 similar complaints against this company.

But Action Housing says you should deal with any companies like it. Non-profit agencies offer better counseling for free.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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