L.A. County To Aggressively Attack Real Estate Fraud As Complaints On Loan Modification, Foreclosure Consultants Flood County Consumer Affairs Office

In Los Angeles, California, the Los Angeles Daily News reports:

• At a time when home foreclosures in Los Angeles County have increased elevenfold in the past three years, the Board of Supervisors launched a new effort Tuesday to attack predatory lending practices and aggressively prosecute real estate fraud.

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• Pastor Herrera Jr., director of the county Consumer Affairs Department, said his office is receiving a flood of telephone calls from people victimized by the deceptive practices of home loan modification facilitators and foreclosure consultants.

• "The most common thing we're seeing are people who tell the homeowners if they give them some upfront money that they can guarantee they will get them a loan modification with a fixed interest rate and there is no problem because of their past credit history," Herrera said.

• If the homeowners are already in foreclosure, Herrera said, foreclosure consultants represent themselves as the "saviors," promising to get them out of foreclosure and sometimes pressuring homeowners to sign documents transferring ownership of the home to the consultants.

For more, see It's war on real estate fraud.