Victimized Homeowners Expecting $125K In Restitution From NJ AG Civil Suit Tagging Loan Mod Ripoffs Yields Measly $4K

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, KYW-TV Channel 3 reports:

• Mortgage delinquencies in Pennsylvania and New Jersey are on the rise. Often desperate times call for desperate measures, but before you shell out money to a company to help save your home, 3 On Your Side Consumer Reporter Jim Donovan has a warning for you.
  
  “We were very vulnerable and you know, they preyed on that,” says Misty Corsey. Corsey had hoped to lower her mortgage payments when her husband’s hours were cut. A company called Mortgage Foreclosure Experts promised to help for a $2300 upfront free.
  
  According to Corsey, “We were guaranteed to get our mortgage under one thousand dollars.” That would have been a savings of over $500 a month, but what did she really get? Corsey says, “They did get me a modification for about $15 dollars cheaper.”
  
  “I thought I did everything right,” says Kim Jagielski. Jagielski had hired Mortgage Foreclosure Experts after being laid off. She says, “He said they can help me get a remodification, that I was doing something wrong on my own, that they were there to help me.”
  
  Jagielski paid $2,300 too and didn’t get anything in return. She says, “They won’t respond. They won’t call.”
  
  In March 2011, Mortgage Foreclosure Experts was one of 11 unlicensed companies that the New Jersey Attorney General targeted for providing illegal modification services. The State fined the companies and sought $125,000 in restitution.
  
  But now, two years later, only three of those companies have ever paid up, and only a measly $4,000 was given back to customers. Mortgage Foreclosure Experts wasn’t among those three companies, and has never forked over a cent.

For the story, see 3 On Your Side: Mortgage Foreclosure Experts.