NJ Couple Duped Out Of $2,800 By Loan Modification Firm Promoting "HOPE" - Thought Company Was Associated With Gov't

In Ocean County, New Jersey, The Press of Atlantic City reports:

• [I]n a statement describing [loan modification firm] Hope Now's offenses, the [New Jersey Attorney General's] office mentioned a couple in Eagleswood Township, Ocean County, "who had more than $2,800 billed to their credit card by the defendants, received no loan-modification services and ultimately confronted foreclosure after they stopped paying their mortgage on the advice of a company representative."

• On Thursday evening, that couple, Jessie and Wayne Corliss, were still in their Forge Road home. They bought it for $159,000 about 10 years ago, and in three months, they might have to move again. The Corlisses first found Hope Now in November when they started looking for a way to decrease their monthly mortgage payments. Wayne Corliss searched the Web for "loan modification," and he said Hope Now Financial Services' Web site - www.hopenowmod.com - was the first to appear.

• "We saw something about it on TV," he said. "I just figured it was through the government." What the Corlisses were probably thinking of was Hope Now Alliance, a legitimate mortgage counseling and support nonprofit approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Its Web site is www.hopenow.com.

• The Attorney General's Office said Hope Now Financial Services and other similarly named companies posed as Hope Now Alliance, violating the Consumer Fraud Act. The office has documentation of representatives telling consumers that it was in fact the only legitimate service, set up by the federal government, and that all other services were imposters.

For more, see Eagleswood Township couple named in suit against company.

For the NJ AG lawsuit, see Milgram v. Hope Now Financial Services.