NC AG On Loan Modification Foreclosure Rescue Scammers: "These Creeps Are Out There, Crawling Out From Under Rocks & Taking People's Money"

In Greenville, North Carolina, The Daily Reflector reports:

• State Attorney General Roy Cooper on Tuesday warned local homeowners and business leaders to be wary of home mortgage assistance scams, one of several topics he covered at a luncheon hosted by the Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce at the Brook Valley Country Club.

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• His office is trying to push buyers and lenders to work complicated financial issues out together through the use of qualified counselors, he said. [...] However, since scammers know counselors are being used, they are presenting themselves as such to borrowers, getting money up front and not helping them, Cooper said. His office has tackled about 130 foreclosure scams, he said.

• “You know that these creeps are out there, crawling out from under rocks and taking people's money,” Cooper said. The attorney general's office received seven scam complaints in 2007, 82 in 2008 and 353 scam complaints this year, he said. North Carolina was one of the first states to make it illegal to take money up front for home mortgage foreclosure counseling, and state attorneys are using the law in courts now to try to end the scams, Cooper said.

Source: AG Cooper visits with chamber, Boys & Girls Club.