Mystery Shoppers Find Good Foreclosure Prevention Elusive

Troubled borrowers who turned to so-called foreclosure prevention specialists paid an average of $2,900 for "poor advice" that "bordered on theft," mystery shoppers hired by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition have found. The counsel provided by these firms is "horrible," NCRC executive vice president David Berenbaum told the NAREE Conference in Washington. "For every legitimate one, the next three border on theft." Among other things, these scam artists told borrowers not to pay their mortgages and not to speak with their lenders. NCDC plans to announce these and other findings uncovered by some 200 mystery shoppers later this month, Mr. Berenbaum said. He also told the group of about 100 housing writers that nine out of 10 subprime loans were refinancings that "did not expand home ownership," and that many seniors are being "misguided" into high-cost reverse mortgages.