I just received a very official sounding recorded message informing me that President Obama has a new program to help save my home–it’s NOT a refinance. If my rate is over 7% or if I’m falling behind on my mortgage, I can be helped. If I press 1, I’ll be connected immediately to a Restructure Specialist. I’m feeling feisty…so I press 1.
Immediately a polite gentleman boldly answered my questions.
Are you or do you represent my mortgage company?
No. We’re a loan modification company.
If I understand Obama’s plan correctly, shouldn’t I call who I make my mortgage payments to for a modification?
Well you can, but the clients help receive better results.
Great! Do you do this service for free?
No. We don’t.
Why would I pay you for this when I can call my mortgage servicer and do this for free?
Because you charge for our expertise.
How much does your expertise cost?
We have two convenient mortgage plans. You can either pay $1899 or three installments at $699 each.
How did you get my phone number? I’m on the do-not-call list.
Our marketing department is calling everyone across the country with mortgages.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I let him know that I was a Mortgage Originator who is versed on The Affordable Home programs and that I don’t condone this type of soliciting. He told me he’s a mortgage originator too and then slammed the phone down in my ear.
There must be significant money in this industry to allow these companies to employ these solicitors. I hope our State is agressive in regulating the loan mod industry to protect home owners from predatory actions.
The recorded message on this phone call sounded so legitimate, I believe that people who are in desperate need of help would think it was coming from the Government. If I didn’t have my background, and would not have known what to ask the gentleman on the phone, I’m sure he wouldn’t do anything to change that image.
Excellent post, Rhonda, and I’m so glad you chose to hit #1! I’ve been doing a little research on some of the practices going on in the short sale arena, since that is an area I work in, and I am finding that there are several things happening locally by some that are in potential, if not direct, violation of HUD and RESPA laws. I hope to post details soon after I get some additional feedback from the NAR on a question I’ve been pursuing.
Cheers,
Reba
Reba, I really didn’t have time to press #1…but it really sounded that legit. Now I need to file a complaint at http://www.donotcall.gov
Wow, that’s pretty blatantly scammy. Too bad you didn’t get the name of the company. Sounds like the kind of thing that should be reported to the FTC or something.
The Tim, I DO have the name of the scammy company… 🙂 By the way, I recently had another phone solicitor try telling me that my registration on the DNC list must have expired…according to the DNC website, registrations will never expire…learned something new today!
Way to go Rhonda. I have been hearing a lot about clients receiving these calls. I can’t tell you how much SPAM I receive for all these new Loan Mod companies. It’s definitely the new wave of mortgage SCAMS these days. Not just the consumers, but Loan Originators too. Many companies saying they’ll train me to be a Loan Mod specialist or send us your clients and earn a fee. No way.
I received that guy’s call yesterday, too. And our number is also “do not call”. Furthermore, our mrtg was paid off last Sept, so we’re no longer mortgage-holders. I told him we’re on the do not call list. I did NOT tell him we don’t have a mortgage.
He’s lying about targeting mortgage holders; he’s targeting everyone.
Chik, the email spam from loan mod companies is incredible. It’s often a scam where a LO has to pay thousands of dollars to be a part of their program–the organizers probably don’t care if the LO ever performs a loan mod…they’re ahead of the game everytime a desparate LO signs up.
I think they need to pass something real soon to regulate these fly by night companies. Maybe only allow Attorneys to handle loan modifications since they are regulated. If they don’t do something real soon, these vultures are going to get way out of hand!
I have actually been seeing these loan mod companies opening up storefronts all over Chicago. I tell you, it is the same people moving on to the next hot thing. We have a well known boiler room mortgage company here that hosts a radio show (pays to be on the air) and they literally have progressed as follows:
First Year: Typical refinance boom hack shop
Second Year: Sub Prime specialst
Third Year: Option ARM (which they renamed “wealth management or some BS)
Fourth Year: Pimping Condotel’s in Florida
Fifth Year: Money Merge Accounts
Sixth Year: Now they are Loan Modification specialist. Of course, they charge a couple of grand for the service. They even hired 10th Tier online law school grads to make themselves seem more legit.
Truly pathetic…
Rhonda, great warning, thank you.
Sounds like this guy was not that well trained. Usually telemarketers like this will not give you the real name of their company before they get a good bit of personal information from you.
The place I get calls from the most is “Card Services” trying to refinance my non-existent credit card debt. I’ve reported them to the FTC a number of times over the past couple of years, yet they start calling again every couple of months. I haven’t been able to get an address or phone number out of them, even when playing along with the call.
There is a hopefully a special place in Hell for telephone scammers and mass email spammers.
Rhonda, great warning, thank you.
Sounds like this guy was not that well trained. Usually telemarketers like this will not give you the real name of their company before they get a good bit of personal information from you.
The place I get calls from the most is “Card Services” trying to refinance my non-existent credit card debt. I’ve reported them to the FTC a number of times over the past couple of years, yet they start calling again every couple of months. I haven’t been able to get an address or phone number out of them, even when playing along with the call.
There is a hopefully a special place in Hell for telephone scammers and mass email spammers.
Gene, we get the “card services” call too… I was really hesitant to “play along” with this game because I did this once before with mortgage solicitors and wound up getting numerous calls from call centers in India for mortgages.
Yuck! These calls are nuts. I’ll tell you, the stuff that we keep getting as agents is how to get on directories to become REO agents (meaning listing agent for bank owned properties for those who don’t know). I get spammed daily, multiple times a day along with requests to become a loan modifications specialist (I’m not a mortgage person), to be on calls for learning short sale techniques or REO techniques, etc, etc.
Cruel horrible annoying people. I am on the do not call list as well and it does not seem to stop anyone.
I don’t understand why these people aren’t outlawed since they are a total sham. The DFI is not allowing upfront fees to be paid to them but I really wonder if they should be banned in the first place. It us unfortunate that they are even offering a license to them and to have them operate under a loan originator license is an embarassment to all of us licensed originators.
It would be nice is the State’s Attorney General couldn’t issue a TV warning… like the political smear ads with fuzzy badly taken photos of these bozos along with some dire music with the lettering all done in red.
“Don’t let these people rip you off”. Maybe show them with fangs…
If loan originators do not want to be associated with loan mod salesmen, it’s up to the loan originators to come together and go to the state and tell DFI that you don’t want them identified with LOs or as LOs.
We should remember that the state receives licensing revenue each time a loan mod salesman realizes he/she has to get an LO license. Don’t count on the state to act quickly to get rid of a revenue source.
It is, however, extremely nice to be able to quickly identify the predators because they’re all now doing loan mods.
Jillayne, I would say that the remaining loan originators in Washington State have enough to deal with between surviving all the guideline changes and being some of the few left standing to have to deal with this. It’s not up to loan originators to protect the public–our government should be. DFI is trying to take steps but they do seem like baby steps.
I agree with Cathy…it would be great to see our Atty General do ads on TV warning consumers about predatory loan mods…I’d like to see it done on a national level. The folks who were calling me were trying to give the impression that they worked for Obama’s team. I do think I just happened to have a “restruction specialist” who just didn’t have enough spin.
“Nice caller,” lol. I for one wouldn’t be fooled by that guy. I know there’s lot of help from the government that I can get for free–after all our taxes pay for those services. You’re right–why would you want to pay for “expert” service that you can get for free in the first place? That’s one of the stupidest solicited phone call transcripts I’ve seen in a while. And he had the nerve to slam the phone on you! No decent agent would do that, right?
What exactly is the scam? The caller was offering his expertise for a fee. How many here do the same?
Calling on the NDC list is tacky, though.
What exactly is the scam? The caller was offering his expertise for a fee. How many here do the same?
Calling on the NDC list is tacky, though.
tomtom, the pre-recorded greeting really presented themselves as if they were a part of the government serving Obama’s loan mod program. That’s scammy IMO.
Ah, your initial post didn’t say that. The guy answered your questions in a straightforward manner.
The gov’t says beware of any person or organization asking a fee to assist with loan mods.
http://makinghomeaffordable.gov/beware.html
Are persons or organizations asking a fee to assist with tax return preparation scammers as well?
tomtom, I don’t see tax preparer’s and loan mods salesmen as the same. But I’m sure there are some scammy tax preparer’s too…
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