Why Are You Still Be Duped Into Paying For Forensic Audits?

In this age of the internet, it is possible to throughly research any decision that you might make in regard to saving your home, or spending any money on any service that claims to help you accomplish that goal. Why then, do consumers continued to be scammed and duped into buying ridiculous reports which the sellers claim will save their home from foreclosure, get them a free house, take on the banks, etc? In announcing the latest settlement, the FTC announced:

“The defendants behind an operation that allegedly preyed on vulnerable homeowners have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they lured people into paying $1,995 or more by holding out bogus promises that they could help them avoid foreclosure and renegotiate their mortgages.

The FTC’s settlement order against the Los Angeles, California-based Consumer Advocates Group Experts, LLC, company owner Ryan Zimmerman, and two other related companies is part of the agency’s continuing crackdown on scams that target consumers in financial distress. It bans the defendants from marketing any mortgage assistance relief or other debt relief products or services. It also prohibits them from making misleading claims about any financial product or service, or any other type of product or service.”

The settlement also imposes a $3.5 million judgment, which reflects the full amount of consumer injury during the two years before the operation was shut down.

The judgment will be suspended due to the defendants’ inability to pay. If it is later determined that the financial information the defendants provided to the FTC was false, the full amount of the judgment will become due.

You can read the judgment here.
Posted by Barbara Gilbert at 9:28 AM

Author: timothymccandless

I have spent most of my professional life helping people who were being taken advantage of by systems they did not fully understand. As an attorney, I represented consumers against predatory lending practices and worked in elder law protecting seniors from fraud. My family lost $239,145 to identity theft, which became the foundation for my seniorgard.onlime and deepened my commitment to financial education. Since 2008, I have maintained a blog at timothymccandless.wordpress.com providing free financial education. Not behind a paywall. Free, because financial literacy should not cost money. I trade with real money using the exact strategy described in this book. My current positions: Pfizer at $16,480 deployed generating $77,900 per year net. Verizon at $29,260 deployed generating $51,000 per year net. Combined: 293% annualized pace. These are my only active positions. Not cherry-picked. View all posts by timothymccandless