photo credit: Think-N-Evolve

Now that HARP has been revamped by the government, new fraudulent schemes are on the rise. Many homeowners are beyond stressed -- receiving mortgage delinquency notices and facing eviction and foreclosure, so it's a wonderful time for scammers to sharpen their deceitful teeth and sink those teeth into desperate borrowers. Tim Gallagher, chief of the FBI's Financial Crimes section explains, "We call them home rescue schemes. The targeting right now by the bad actors out there, we're seeing an upswing in directing it at individuals who are underwater."

Con artists prey on underwater borrowers who are having problems modifying or refinancing their current home loans. They promise a successful loan modification in exchange for a payment in advance of between $3,000-$5,000. Once they receive the payment, this "business" will simply disappear -- leaving the homeowner in an even bigger lurch. Gallagher says that rescue schemes and other refinance scams make up ten percent of the FBI's mortgage fraud cases. He goes on to explain that that figure would be even higher were it not for the FBI's one-million-dollar "threshold when it comes to the amount of money involved in a particular scheme." Gallagher clarifies it further, "It's easier to arrive at that amount with someone accused of mortgage loan origination fraud on four or five houses than it is for homeowner bailout schemes, which tend to involve lower dollar amounts."

Now that the government has implemented the second phase of its HARP program, the FBI is continually working with HUD as well as the FTC to further awareness in an effort to prevent borrowers from becoming victimized in this manner. These types of schemes are now a top priority for the FBI, and they will prosecute scammers as such.

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