Indiana Homeowners Victimized By Loan Modification Ripoffs To Begin Receiving Partial Recoveries Of Upfront Fees From New State Fund

From the Office of the Indiana Attorney General:

• More than 70 victims of foreclosure-rescue fraud will receive payments totaling $60,000 from Indiana's newly created Consumer Protection Assistance Fund (CPAF), according to Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller.



• "This important fund provides some relief for consumers who assist my office to bring legal actions against businesses that prey on consumers' who are financially vulnerable as well as helping warn others to avoid these scams," Zoeller said. "Our office is appreciative of our state lawmakers' efforts to create the Consumer Protection Assistance Fund to give victims who are facing difficult times the means to recover some or all of their losses."

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• During the foreclosure crisis, many homeowners were victimized by foreclosure-rescue fraud, deceptive credit-services or home-loan practices. Many consumers then filed complaints with the Attorney General's Office.



• Default judgments against companies do not often result in the victims receiving any payments for their financial losses. In order to help those who reported these types of violators to the state, the 2011 Indiana General Assembly passed legislation creating the CPAF.



• To save taxpayer dollars, legislators allowed the monies to originate from funds recovered from companies sued by the attorney general for violating consumer protection laws. Zoeller said the CPAF was modeled after a restitution fund that paid more than $125,000 to Indiana victims of American Escrow, a Chicago-based company that failed to pay more than $1 million in property taxes collected from homeowners.

For the Indiana AG press release, see Indiana fraud victims to receive compensation from new fund (Fund reimburses consumers who assist AG with enforcement of consumer protection laws).