Are their claims basically legal and honest.
"Here?s how it works: For a stiff upfront fee -- sometimes $2,500 or more -- you can get a certificate to take to your bank that supposedly eliminates your obligation to repay your mortgage, credit cards or other debt...
Spread via Web sites, e-mail and those ubiquitous hotel ballroom seminars, these scams have proliferated to the point that the Federal Reserve Board and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates the national banks, have sent out alerts to the banks they regulate. The warnings tell banks not only to be on guard against this scam but also to confiscate any documents that the borrower presents and send a suspicious activity report to the FBI -- the same kind of report used to alert the bureau to information about possible terrorists, money launderers and other criminals."
MSN Money: Watch out for debt-elimination scams
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/SavingandDebt/P80462.asp
From an FBI warning issued last Christmas:
"Beware of scams like these...
Debt or mortgage elimination offers. The perpetrators of these schemes offer to take advantage of 'loopholes in the system' that will eliminate your entire mortgage for an up-front fee. Don't believe it. There are no loopholes."
Federal Bureau of Investigation: Fraud Alert
http://www.fbi.gov/page2/dec03/fraud120803.htm
"Debt-elimination companies claim that they can eliminate your debt and that you do not have to make any more payments with no repercussions. Sounds good, huh? Too good! The bottom line alleged by these companies is that the debt that you have incurred using credit cards is not legal debt. The murky debt-elimination process is said to be based on information from Title 15 United State Code -- section 1692, the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act -- section 1601, the Fair Credit Billing Act and the Uniform Commercial Code -- section 203.
Debt-elimination companies, sometimes for a steep fee ($2,995 for one company), will send you materials explaining what they assert is your legal right not to pay your debt. Many of them promise to support your debt-elimination process with "experts" that understand the laws that pertain to credit card companies issuing you credit.
What is missing from the Web sites and advertising of these companies is that if laws are in place that make it illegal for a credit card company to extend you credit, why are there billions of credit cards in circulation? If these debt-elimination companies have found out that it is illegal for credit card companies to extend credit to consumers, don't you think that it would have come to the attention of lawmakers who would then enforce this law?"
BankRate: Beware bogus 'debt elimination' companies
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/debt/20031212a1.asp
"Board staff has become aware of various illegal schemes being offered to the public that purport to eliminate outstanding debt through the use of specially prepared documents. The organizers of these schemes concoct specious legal documents based on the borrower's debt, which are then presented to the borrower's bank, mortgage company, finance company, or other lending institution in an attempt to satisfy the debt. The scams are reminiscent of the tax protesters' tax evasion schemes seen throughout the 1990s.
The purported legal documents used in the current scams include fake financial instruments that claim to eliminate the borrower's debt obligation...
These schemes are proliferating on the Internet, and the organizers are charging borrowers substantial up-front fees and commissions based on the total amount of debt that can be forgiven. Members of the public are being harmed as borrowers generally pay significant amounts of money without eliminating or reducing their overall debt obligations - which of course is not in fact possible through any of these programs."
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/SRLETTERS/2004/sr0403.htm
"ALERT from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Subject: Illegal Financial Activity
Description: Fictitious Debt Elimination Schemes
Date: October 1, 2003...
RE: Debt Elimination Schemes using Fictitious or Worthless Bonds, Due Bills and Bills of Exchange
Please be advised that worthless instruments entitled 'Bond for Discharge of Debt', 'Bill of Exchange,' 'Due Bill,' 'Redemption Certificate,' or other similarly titled documents continue to be presented to financial institutions, mortgage companies, credit card issuers, and retail establishments throughout the United States in an effort to eliminate legitimate debts. Many of these schemes are premised on baseless or fraudulent claims against the United States Treasury, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Internal Revenue Service, or other federal or state agencies...
Regardless of how such instruments or documents are titled or whether they appear authentic, they are worthless, have no legal validity, and are not payable through the United States Treasury, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Comptroller of the Currency, or any other federal or state agency."
Judd McIlvain - TroubleShooter: Scam Alert
http://www.troubleshooterjudd.com/scam/scam_mortgagescam.html
"Customers pay an upfront fee of about 10 percent of their total debt to receive advice and materials that explain how to use loopholes to get out of paying their obligations...
But most of these companies are frauds, said William Kerr, a national bank examiner with the U.S. Office of Comptroller of the Currency.
'The concept they are using is not valid and has no basis in fact or finance,' Kerr said. 'It's basically an upfront-fee scheme.'
Kerr said he is unaware of any individual who has successfully gotten their debts eliminated by using this process against a creditor."
Honolulu Star Bulletin: Debt-reduction offers attract state inquiry
http://starbulletin.com/2003/12/18/news/story3.html
"If an Internet site or other advertisement offers to sell you a document you can use to 'legally' eliminate an outstanding credit card balance or other debt, don't believe it.
U.S. government and banking industry reports indicate a variety of schemes on the Internet and elsewhere promoting programs that, for a significant fee (sometimes thousands of dollars), fraudulently claim to enable borrowers to stop payments on a debt simply by giving the lender a specially-prepared document...
The bottom line: These documents are bogus and a waste of money. If you come across this scam on the Internet or elsewhere, consider reporting the details to the FBI."
WJRT: Consumer News-Debt relief scams
http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/news/041204_CO_r2_debt_relief_scams.html
Google search strategy:
Google Web Search: "mortgage OR debt elimination" scam
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=%22mortgage+OR+debt+elimination%22+scam
I hope this information is helpful. If anything is unclear, or if a link doesn't work for you, please request clarification; I'll gladly offer further assistance before you rate my answer.
Best regards,
pinkfreud
So quess why the "government" agencies are quick to make negative statements which are usually just redundant gibberish. False documents being filed..worthless bill of exchanges, etc.. Where the real fraud is involved in the fraudulent documents the lending institutions are generating each and everyday. It is called "converting loan fees into "principal" times "0".
Some other legal terms for these acts are "fictitious consideration" - "fraud against equity" - "constructive fraud" - "failure of consideration" these are only a few of the usually 28 to 32 violations which a trained legal/financial specialist came easily point out. Many of these violations are "money laundering" RICO violations.
No, nobody wants to talk about the true, only scare and intimidation tactics. It really should not be so surprising though, becaue discourage feeds the collections and lending systems.
The only others that try to negate the facts that some of the mortgage elimination processes are in deed working fine, appear to be the mortgage lenders, various real estate companies, audience starved radio hosts, and a few local Better Business Bureau franchise owners.
As far as the idea of up-front fees? These fees would be based upon the fact that if the person had nothing invested, then they might drop the whole program if one of the afore mentioned were successful scaring or discouraging them. If they have money invested [which pays legal fees/ court filings/ administrative workers, etc] then a scared or intimidated client would be less likely to complete their process.
To address the price issues? Just ask the BBB how much it would cost you to use their logos and rapidly disappearing website imblems? Whow....if you have a small busines with just a few employees, it could cost your several thousand dollars for this logo. I have yet to see how this ads much of a benefit to promoting a business, other than keeping a data base about a business. Any responsible information can be obtained via your state agencies, Consumer Affairs, or the Federal Trade Commission for free.
Just the monthly payments on some properties in question could far surpass the 2 to 3 administrative fees. I have yet to see any of the sabatoge tactics being to try to "silence" the mortgage elimination business that was based upon law? So just look into the Bible or the history books for references as to why no society has ever survived for any reasonable length of time using "debt usury" and "fiat money."