Another Warning About Loan Modification Scams Issued

• Jurisdiction: California,United States
• Citation: Vol. 04 No. 2011 Pg. 02
• Publication year: 2011
• Pages: 02
• Year: 2011
• topic: Business of Law,Real Estate

California Bar Journal 2011.

CBJ - April 2011 #02. Another warning about loan modification scams issued

The California Lawyer
April 2011

Another warning about loan modification scams issued

By Nancy McCarthy
Staff Writer

When Los Angeles lawyer Luis Rodriguez responded to a summons-like mailer soliciting him to join other homeowners in a lawsuit against the Bank of America, he was told he qualified to be a plaintiff and had only to "donate" $6,000 to sign up. Rodriguez, a deputy public defender and member of the State Bar Board of Governors, was told the bank had misled consumers, but "high caliber" lawyers would handle the case. Be patient, he was told; these cases take a year or two to resolve. And, he was promised, he would receive some money.

The solicitation came to Rodriguez' home and although he once had a BofA loan and had refinanced, the bank was no longer involved. But he apparently was a target of the latest marketing effort to attract homeowners who, unlike Rodriguez, are facing foreclosure. (Rodriguez did not join the suit.) The California Department of Real Estate issued a consumer alert last month warning mortgage holders to beware of such solicitations by lawsuit marketers who request upfront fees to file "mass joinder" or class action lawsuits with promises of extraordinary home...