Category Archives: Scam of the Day
South Florida Mortgage Professionals Scammed Seniors Across the Country
Louis Gendason, John Incadela, Marcos Echaverria and Kimberly Mackey worked together to obtain $2.5 million in reverse mortgage loans from Genworth Financial over a period of two years. Sounds like they were helping a lot of seniors stay in their homes, right? Not in this case. The four are charged with pocketing nearly a million … Continue reading
Tax Auction Scandal: Selectman’s Wife Acquires Home in Sketchy Tax Sale
When Laurie Chambers, the wife of a Maine selectman, acquired the home of a local, ailing widower for the small sum of $20,000 in a tax auction, eyebrows rose around the area[1]. The $229,300 (or $172,000, depending on which party is doing the assessing) home, which was in foreclosure due to more than $7,000 in … Continue reading
Federal Prosecutors Seek Life Sentence for Mortgage Fraud Mastermind
Lee Farkas, former majority owner of Florida mortgage company Taylor, Bean & Whitaker (TBW), didn’t kill anyone, but he still is facing life in prison – 385 years to be exact – for a $3 billion mortgage fraud scheme that has been called “one of the biggest bank frauds in U.S. history.” When his company … Continue reading
Investor Used Real Estate Seminars to Recruit Straw Buyers
If you attended a real estate “seminar” hosted by Brett Matheson in 2005 or 2006, you might have been the unwitting targets for a major real estate scam. The real estate investor and CEO of Maricopa Property Investment Solutions has now admitted that he was using those seminars to recruit straw buyers for what ended … Continue reading
Real Estate Scam of the Day: Agents Beware
In Idaho, real estate agents are encountering a new type of scam perpetrated though websites like Zillow and Trulia[1]. In the scam, a real estate agent is contacted through the website instead of emailed directly, and the “buyer” expresses interest in working with a real estate professional in order to buy property. By making contact … Continue reading
JPMorgan Chase Mortgage Chief Leaving After Military Scandal
JPMorgan Chase’s head of home lending, Frank Bisignano, announced yesterday that “Dave Lowman and I have decided he will leave the firm” following a military lending fiasco in which the bank was found guilty not just of over-charging active-duty military personnel, but also improperly foreclosing on them and on other borrowers[1]. The lender recently announced … Continue reading
Bank of America Threatens Foreclosure for Delinquency of $0.00
A Northhampton, Massachusetts man recently averted disaster by paying his delinquent mortgage bill of zero dollars and zero cents[1]. That’s right: the guy didn’t owe his lender (Bank of America) a penny, but they hit his credit score and were ready to seize his home if he didn’t pay up! The notice, in fact, read … Continue reading
Bank of America Stays in the Crosshairs as AGs Move In
Settling up with the Office of the Comptroller of Currency for its part in last fall’s robo-signer debacle did not help Bank of America much when it comes to its mortgage-servicing and foreclosure practices. The lender is still facing close scrutiny and increased pressure from Utah and Connecticut attorney generals who are accusing the bank … Continue reading
Anti-Discrimination Settlement Results in $250,000 Distribution, “Aggressive” Safeguards
Following a civil rights investigation into “discriminatory practices against African-American borrowers” on the part of Mortgage Master Inc., Massachusetts’s attorney general has reached a settlement with the company[1]. The company faced claims that it charged more than 200 black borrowers up to $1,000 more on their loans than it charged their white and Latino counterparts[2]. … Continue reading
Real Estate Scam of the Day: Distressed Homeowners Signed Blank Real Estate Contracts, Investors Invest in Overleveraged Properties
It is not illegal to fail in real estate investing, but it is illegal to take money then fail to try. Tara Bonelli of Santa Cruz, California was arrested by the FBI on Friday for wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering[1]. She took money from investors, allegedly to put into distressed properties that could … Continue reading