Money Talks

HUNDREDS OF desperate homeowners crowded into the basement of
Memorial Coliseum last weekend for workshops on how to avoid
foreclosure.

Some experts did not mince words when describing foreclosure
scammers. “There are a lot of folks out there that are what we would
call pond slime, cat’s breath, scum,” said Jan Margosian, of the state
attorney general’s office.

In March, 648 Multnomah County residents filed for foreclosure and
new scams have popped up to take advantage of the down and out.
Margosian and a coalition of nonprofits want the state to take
preventative action fast and pass a bill that would force lenders and
homeowners to have face-to-face negotiations to avoid foreclosure.

Foreclosure scammers capitalize on the lack of actual contact
between Oregon home-owners and their lenders. Names of people who are
30, 60, or 90 days behind on their mortgage sell for 24 cents a name,
according to Joe Yates, president of Oregon-based LoanRefine. Yates
says marketing companies call him frequently, offering to send his
clients mail offers that are designed to look like they come from the
government or straight from their bank. “I know they are pushing that
kind of deceptive junk,” says Yates.

The face-to-face mediation bill, Senate Bill 628, is modeled on a
program Philadelphia started one year ago. More than three out of four
homeowners who sat down with their lenders in that program are still in
their houses today. According to Oregon housing nonprofit ACORN, if the
same program passes in Oregon, it will avert 14,000 of the state’s
20,000 projected foreclosures.

At the Saturday workshop, Margosian gave examples of scams that
promise Obama stimulus dollars to people who troll Craigslist and
Facebook for personal information.

“You have got to keep talking to your lender,” stressed Margosian.
“You don’t want to be talking to all these scammers out there!”

As personal stories of scamming came out, the workshop turned a
little rowdy. A man in a baseball cap at the back of the room stood up
and yelled, “We need to sue ’em, class action!”

Lake Oswego resident Carii Schirle never thought her bank would duck
her phone calls. But when Schirle and her husband lost their jobs in
the economic crash, Schirle called her lender to adjust their mortgage.
“It was absolutely ridiculous,” says Schirle, who hounded the lender
with phone calls and navigated mind-numbing automated menus for
weeks.

“It was a complete dead end,” she says. Schirle seriously considered
forking over $3,500 to someone who said they would negotiate with her
bank, but realized the money-up-front deal was a scam and turned to
ACORN instead.

Under Senate Bill 628, Schirle’s lender would have to sit down with
her and negotiate face to face. Until then, the unemployed couple has a
new business venture: cleaning out foreclosed homes for banks and real
estate agents.