Foreclosure Rescuer Who Pocketed $3,500 For Failed Mortgage Assistance Claims He Was Scammed By Loan Modification Firm He Farmed Out The Work To

In Bradenton, Florida, ABC News reports:

• It was $3,500 Nickie Struthers couldn't afford -- but desperate to stave off foreclosure, the 45-year-old and her fiance, Dr. Dan Howard, a surgeon, scribbled their signatures on the check they thought would yield salvation. She handed the check to someone she'd done business with in the past, a mortgage broker-turned-foreclosure rescuer. But months went by, and the broker seemed to disappear. He had promised to modify her loan, she said, "but he wouldn't take our phone calls, e-mails, nothing. I never thought this would happen."

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• But the man who admits he accepted Struthers' check, Chris Campbell of the company Lionstar LLP, insisted he is not a scammer. Rather, he said he believes he may have been scammed by a subcontractor to which he passed along the money, which in turn was supposed to deal with [the lender].

• He said he went into a deep depression after believing he'd lost his clients' money, and that's why he did not answer their calls. But he claimed he is working to find a way to refund Struthers' and Howard's money.

For more, see Foreclosure Scams Up as 'Piranhas' Circle (FBI Adds Resources to Battle Mortgage Fraud Amid Exponential Rise in Complaints).