NY AG Forces Firm Peddling Reverse Mortgages To Reform Marketing Practices

From the New York Attorney General's office:

• Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo [last week] announced his office has stopped a Syracuse-area reverse mortgage lender from preying on seniors statewide through false advertising and portraying itself to be a local non-profit organization. Under a settlement reached by the Attorney General’s Office, Upstate Capital, Inc. of Basile Rowe in East Syracuse, must reform its marketing practices and indicate that it is a registered mortgage/reverse mortgage broker. The company must also pay $20,000 in costs and penalties to the state.

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• Starting in July of 2007, Upstate Capital sent flyers portraying itself as [a non-profit organization] to seniors statewide promoting a “new government program” that “protects seniors” by providing a monthly, tax-free income with no income or credit qualifications. The company also claimed that the “lifetime” program required no repayments. Consumers were directed to call the company to obtain a free packet of information on the program. They would then be contacted by an Upstate Capital representative “on behalf” of [the non-profit firm]. The solicitation, however, neglected to say that the source of the money was actually a loan, and that the product the company is peddling was actually a reverse mortgage.

For more, see Attorney General Cuomo Protects Senior Homeowners From Misleading Reverse Mortgage Solicitations (Reverse mortgage company portrayed itself as community-based non-profit to mislead seniors into reverse mortgage product).

For stories related to Reverse Mortgage Problems, go here, and go here.

Thanks to Bill Collins of Crossroads Abstract, Rochester, NY for the heads-up on this story. reverse mortgage yak