The Federal Commerce Fee has stepped up its investigations and prosecutions of mortgage reduction rip-off artists. Because the begin of 2013, the FTC has obtained settlements from over 20 people and corporations concerned with scamming distressed householders. In the latest instances, two people and 7 corporations settled FTC prices that they victimized greater than a thousand folks by means of “mass joinder lawsuits” and “forensic mortgage audits.” They violated the Mortgage Help Aid Providers (MARS) Rule, which was set as much as curb misleading and unfair practices associated to such providers.

The FTC contends that Sameer Lakhany, Brian Pacios, Precision Regulation Middle, Inc., Precision Regulation Middle LLC, Nationwide Authorized Community, Inc., and Assurity Regulation Group, Inc. focused shoppers with a mass joinder rip-off. They promised householders that they may cease their foreclosures or acquire another mortgage reduction in the event that they joined collectively to sue the lenders. The defendants represented themselves as a regulation agency referred to as Precision Regulation Middle, charging between $6,000 and $10,000 in up-front charges. However each go well with was dismissed quickly after it was filed; the victims noticed not one of the promised reduction.

One of many rip-off artists, Lakhany, was additionally concerned in a “forensic mortgage audit” rip-off, together with The Credit score Store, LLC, Titanium Realty, Inc., and Constancy Authorized Providers LLC. These defendants referred to as themselves nonprofit organizations, with domains like “FreeFedLoanMod.org,” “HouseholdRelief.org,” and “MyHomeSupport.org;” however actually they bought folks an auditing service, which supposedly discovered lender violations in mortgage paperwork. The defendants charged $800 to just about $1,600 for this service, which by no means led to a single favorable mortgage modification for the victims.

The FTC settlements require the defendants to give up many property and pay $4.75 million in restitution. All besides Assurity Regulation Group, Inc. are banned from mortgage reduction and debt reduction providers; Assurity is required to give up $100,000 in funds and has been ordered to stop any misleading practices. In February, the FTC settled with one other predatory group, composed of Ryan Zimmerman, Shopper Advocates Group Specialists, LLC, Paramount Asset Administration Company, and Advocates for Shopper Affairs Skilled, LLC. These entities additionally used the forensic mortgage audit rip-off, and charged folks nearly $2,000 or extra for the audits-they did not make good on their false claims. Moreover receiving a $3.5 million judgment towards them, the defendants are banned from advertising reduction providers or merchandise, and from making any deceptive claims about some other sort of services or products.

In January 2013, eight different defendants settled with the FTC, for promoting faux reduction providers to distressed Spanish-speaking householders over the telephone. The defendants-David F. Preiner, Daniel Hungria, Freedom Corporations Advertising and marketing, Inc., Freedom Corporations Lending, Inc., Freedom Corporations, Inc., Grupo Advertising and marketing Dominicana, Freedom Info Providers, Inc., and Haiti Administration, Inc-collected over $2 million from folks over three years. They merely did not present the providers they mentioned they may. A part of this settlement, during which the defendants obtained a $2.39 million judgment, bans them from advertising reduction services or products, and from making deceptive claims about something they promote.