Last week, while touting the success of one part of the Making Homes Affordable plan, President Obama issued a warning:
As people have become aware that the government is helping to promote refinancing, we're starting to see some scam artists out there who are contacting people saying, you can refinance your home, the government has got a program, we're ready to help -- oh, but by the way, first you've got to pay some money. I just want everybody who is watching today to know that if somebody is asking you for money up front before they help you with your refinancing, it's probably a scam.
I've been talking a lot to someone on the forefront of the loan mod scam epidemic, interestingly, a former subprime lender himself. Steve Dibert started a website, where he seeks to educate troubled borrowers on the ever-increasing number of scams targeting them.
To be totally fair, he does operate a "forensic mortgage auditing firm," ie fraud investigations, and for that he charges a fee.
