Distressed Homeowners Tricked by ‘Securitization Audits’

Fraudsters are charging distressed homeowners fees for information about knowing who owns the note, which is free and does not protect them from foreclosure, according to Mortgage Fraud Examiners.

They convince desperate families “they can make their mortgages disappear if they just pay for a securitization audit” to show they are the mortgage owners and prove the foreclosing lender has no claim to the property in a court of law, says Storm Bradford, founder of the Reston, Va.-based investigative firm.

In fact, “there's absolutely no need to pay for a securitization audit” that typically is not admissible in court, but the average homeowner does not know that, confirms attorney Gregory Bryl, who practices in Florida and Virginia.

Most securitization audits are inadmissible because “they contain a mere opinion of a layman without personal knowledge as to what happened with a particular mortgage note after closing.”

The only proven method for securing evidence critical to homeowners’ claims against the lender is “examination of the mortgage contract to identify errors, breaches, omissions, fraud, statutory violations, and/or predatory/unfair lending practices,” says Thomas Plofchan Jr., another attorney who practices in Sterling, Va.

Unfortunately there still are some homeowners facing foreclosure who fantasize “about getting his home free and clear because his lender screwed up,” Bradford adds.