Homeowners who are facing foreclosure are searching for a way out.  Loan modifications are beginning to be negotiated by many lending institutions.  Homeowners must be aware that many companies are offering loan modification services for a fee.  Some are legitimate but many are not.  If you are a Redding homeowner, be sure to ask for references and check them out before you sign on to have a third party negotiate a loan modification on your behalf.

On March 9th in California, Attorney General Edmund G. Brown announced that three perpetrators have plead guilty to loan modification fraud against hundreds of “desperate California homeowners” and were sentenced to as much as 6 years of prison. The defendants sentenced were part of a foreclosure scam engineered by the First Gov company, which was based in San Bernardino, Calif.

Victims were told to stop making mortgage payments and communicating with their lender because this would interfere with the loan modification process. After collecting their fee,  the schemers pocketed the money and did nothing to help victims.