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“Scam artists have sunk to a new low and are using the forged letterhead of lenders to con worried Californians into handing over their hard-earned money,” Attorney General Brown said. “Californians should be deeply skeptical of anyone who demands money up front and makes extravagant promises that they can save their home.”
Attorney General Brown also advised consumers about seven steps they can take to protect themselves from loan modification fraud. (See below).
The warning comes on the heels of the recent arrest of Anna Santos, 22 – a key player in a loan modification scam using forged letterhead – on charges of money-laundering, conspiracy, and four-counts of grand theft.
Santos joined with members of the defunct First Gov loan modification ring in a separate criminal enterprise with a disturbing twist. They used forged mail and envelopes that appeared to be from victims' lenders.
Santos obtained a fictitious business permit through the city of Los Angeles for "Payment Processing Department." She opened several bank accounts and two post office boxes under that name. She and other members of the ring mailed flyers that appeared to be from victims' lenders or a government entity. The flyer used a large, bold header that read "Final Notice" and advised homeowners that they qualified for a special program to save their home from foreclosure.
After providing their mortgage information, homeowners received what appeared to be "confirmation" that the lender had been notified about the loan modification. Many victims also received loan modification documents that appeared to be from the victim's lender. The documents were of course forgeries.
The victims were informed they had been placed in a "probationary" program and their mortgage payments should be submitted to "Payment Processing Department" and sent to a given post office box address. None of the payments were credited to the victims' home loans.
Payments sent to the post office box were retrieved by Ms. Santos and deposited into the bank accounts she had opened. The money was then transferred to bank accounts held by other members of the ring.
Many victims paid over $6,000 to this loan modification scam.
Here's what homeowners can do to avoid becoming a victim:
DON'T pay money to people who promise to work with your lender to modify your loan. It is unlawful for foreclosure consultants to collect money before (1) they give you a written contract describing the services they promise to provide and (2) they actually perform all the services described in the contract, such as negotiating new monthly payments or a new mortgage loan. However, an advance fee may be charged by an attorney, or by a real estate broker who has submitted the advance fee agreement to the Department of Real Estate, new window, for review.
DO call your lender yourself. Your lender wants to hear from you, and will likely be much more willing to work directly with you than with a foreclosure consultant.
DON'T transfer titled or sell your house to the foreclosure rescuer. Fraudulent foreclosure consultants often promise that if the homeowners transfer title, they may stay in the home as renters and buy their home back later. The foreclosure consultants claim that transfer is necessary so that someone with a better credit rating can obtain a new loan to prevent foreclosure. BEWARE! This is a common scheme so-called "rescuers" use to evict homeowners and steal all or most of the home's equity.
DON'T pay money upfront to people who promise to work with your lender to modify your loan. It is unlawful for foreclosure consultants to collect before 1) they give you a written contract describing the services they promise to proved and 2) they actually perform all the services described in the contract, such as negotiating new monthly payments or a new mortgage loan.
DON'T pay your mortgage payments to someone other than your lender or loan servicer, even if he or she promises to pass the payment on. Fraudulent foreclosure consultants often keep the money for themselves.
DON'T sign any documents without reading them first. Many homeowners think that they are signing documents for a new loan to pay off the mortgage they are behind on. Later, they discover that they actually transferred ownership to the "rescuer."
DON'T ignore letters from your lender. Consider contacting your lender yourself, many lenders are willing to work with homeowners who are behind on their payments.
DO contact housing counselor approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), who may be able to help you for free. For a referral to a housing counselor near you, contact HUD at 1-800-569-4287 (TTY: 1-800-877-8339) or www.hud.gov.
If you transferred your property or paid someone to "rescue" you from foreclosure, you may be a victim of a crime.
Please file a complaint with the Attorney General's Office at the following address: Office of the Attorney General - Public Inquiry Unit, P.O. Box 944255, Sacramento, CA. 94244, or online at www.ag.ca.gov/consumers.
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The OST works to ensure that sound science is integrated into the state’s ocean and coastal management policies.
“The caliber of Ocean Science Trust nominees was exceptional and I applaud members of the trust for their willingness to continue to advance California’s important ocean initiatives long into the future,” said Secretary Chrisman.
The OST works closely with the California Ocean Protection Council (OPC) and its Science Advisory Team to ensure that projects, products, and decisions are robust, credible, and based on the best available science.
The OST also houses the Marine Protected Areas Monitoring Enterprise, an entity leading in the creation of an innovative, focused, and cost-effective approach to monitoring and reporting on California’s marine protected areas designated through the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA).
Ten members form the OST Board of Trustees. California’s natural resources and environmental protection secretaries and the state director of finance each select one agency representative to serve on the board.
Following a nomination process, the seven remaining trustees are appointed by the Natural Resources Secretary as follows: three trustees representing California State University (CSU) and the University of California (UC); two trustees representing state ocean and coastal interest groups; and two trustees representing the general public. Members appointed by the Natural Resources Secretary serve two-year terms, with the possibility of reappointment.
New appointments to the OST include:
CSU/UC Representatives
Dr. Kenneth Coale, director, Moss Landing Marine Lab, San Jose State University;
Dr. David Caron, Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley;
Fred Keeley, Treasurer-Tax Collector, Santa Cruz County.
Coast and ocean interest group representatives
Margaret Spring, California Marine Program director, The Nature Conservancy;
Dr. Barry Gold, Marine Conservation Initiative Lead, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
General public representatives
Ken Wiseman, executive director, Marine Life Protection Act Initiative;
Dr. Steve Weisberg, executive director, Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (re-appointed for a second two-year term).
Returning agency OST members include:
Brian Baird, assistant secretary for ocean and coastal policy, California Natural Resources Agency;
Jonathan Bishop, chief deputy director, State Water Resources Control Board;
Karen Finn, program budget manager, California Department of Finance.
The Ocean Science Trust was established pursuant to the California Ocean Resources Stewardship Act of 2000. The OST is a nonprofit public benefit corporation 501(c) (3) established to encourage coordinated, multi-agency, multi-institution approaches to translating ocean science to resource management and policy applications.
To learn more about trustees, the Marine Protected Areas Monitoring Enterprise, science integration, and other OST efforts, visit www.calost.org.
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LAKEPORT – Lake County Fair officials were pleased to announce that Lyle Coburn of Upper Lake has been promoted to the newly created position of exhibit supervisor for the annual event.
Coburn grew up exhibiting in numerous departments at the Lake County Fair and has worked in various competitive exhibit departments over the past decade, most recently supervising the animal competitions.
Coburn previously held two exhibit department positions at the fair, livestock superintendent and horse show superintendent, and will continue to supervise those activities.
The exhibit supervisor is a new position at the Lake County Fair. The exhibit supervisor, plans, organizes, designs, promotes, supervises and directs competitive exhibits such as photographic, art, flowers, home arts, crafts, agricultural, horticultural, livestock, horse and specialty exhibits, and performs other related duties as required.
The exhibit supervisor prepares rules, regulations, and procedures governing the entry, display, and judging of exhibits, assists in the planning for programming and the securing of judges, and assists in the determination of appropriate categories, divisions, and classes of competition and prizes.
That position also assists with the recruitment, selection, and hiring of temporary fair workers to work with exhibits in all exhibit buildings, and supervises and directs the labor of temporary fair workers to construct, install, decorate and remove exhibits, and to receive, categorize, display and judge the entries in all exhibit buildings.
Previously, each category of competitive exhibit was supervised by a building superintendent, who oversaw the operation of a single fairgrounds building during the annual event.
This year, the fair had vacancies in several of those positions, and fair management saw the opportunity to consolidate the positions into the expanded job of exhibit supervisor. Many other fairs use a single supervisor system.
“Lyle's career at the fair has been advancing steadily, and we're pleased he has agreed to accept this position,” Lake County Fair Chief Executive Officer Richard Persons said. “We had a number of individuals express interest in the job, but Lyle brings hands-on experience in virtually all areas of competitive exhibits, and his experience with the animal competitions made him a great choice to fill the position.”
The exhibit supervisor is a contracted position with duties spread throughout the year, and Coburn will start immediately.
Lake County's premiere family event, the Lake County Fair, opens this Thursday, Sept. 3, and runs through Sunday, Sept. 6.
The Lake County Fair is one of Lake County's favorite summertime events, and is enjoyed by more than 37,000 people each year. The fair features a variety of entertainment, food, exhibits, a carnival, and livestock shows. The fair theme for 2009 is “Fun in the Sun!”
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“This company charged its customers exorbitant interest rates for car loans and then waged an illegal campaign of harassment and intimidation when they couldn’t pay up,” Attorney General Brown said. “Now Lobel must stop its abusive tactics and comply with the law.”
Lobel Financial is headquartered in Anaheim but makes loans to customers in Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, the Bay Area, the Central Valley and other areas of the state.
Lobel provides financing to people with poor credit who purchase vehicles through used-car dealerships. The typical interest rate of their loans is between 21 to 23 percent. Lobel performed its own debt collection efforts when consumers failed to make the required payments.
In 2007, the California Attorney General’s Office initiated an investigation into Lobel’s debt collection practices. The investigation found that Lobel frequently violated California’s Fair Debt Collection Act by:
• Calling its customers repeatedly and allowing the phone to ring continuously;
• Calling a customer’s employer and family members; and
• Using a false name when calling.
Additionally, the company used more sophisticated “pretexting” tactics to obtain confidential information of their customers.
For instance, Lobel deceived ATT Wireless into providing confidential telecommunications records of at least 190 California ATT customers.
Lobel also used a calling card scam to con consumers into providing their calling information. Lobel had a third-party vendor send the customer a “free” phone card; the company would then obtain information about the calls made by the customer using the calling card.
Hundreds of California consumers across the State were victimized by Lobel’s constant harassment and illegal debt collection activities.
Lobel Financial will pay $150,000 in civil penalties and $100,000 to the State for attorneys’ fees and costs.
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