Hello all, I'm new. I'm a 22 year old daughter posting mostly on behalf of my parents and out of concern for what they got themselves into. I believe my parents got themselves scammed by some group (?) of people who promised to modify their mortgage. I just learned most of these details today which raised some red flags for me. Also, this takes place in SF Bay Area, California.
My mom answered an ad that was in the Pennysaver about loan modification, the company was USMAC Financial Services and the person who helped was John Rapp (ph # 1-800-485-8055 x5034).
They made my parents sign a contract and pay $3,500 (by credit card) up front to John Rapp I believe. They assigned a lawyer named Christian M. Dillon to our case, and some documents we received from his office were very unprofessional and had no signature of his on any of them. Also, one of the documents were supposed to be signed by his case managers named Melissa Holland and Lori Fitch, but it's a fake cursive computer font.
John Rapp also instructed my parents to be delinquent on their mortgage for 2 months, and one of the people in Dillon's office denied anyone ever saying that. It's going onto the 3rd month now, and someone from the Dillon office now instructed my parents to pay $1000 for the mortgage (which probably isn't possible since the mortgage company wants the full sum due, our monthly mortgage is around $2800). These suggestions seem very shady to me, and I could foresee losing the house if they'll lead us on like that and do nothing about it.
Some other details are that the Dillon office was instructed by my parents to call their cell phones if they want to contact them since they're almost never home during their hours due to work. However, they keep calling the wrong phone number and it seems like they're trying to avoid contact. And once my mom actually does manage to get in contact with them, they're mostly clueless. For example, she was told that another person had her file, so she had to call that person, then that person said another person had her file, etc.
When I heard of this today, I checked on the internet about this and found some writings by people that seem to indicate that this whole thing is a sham, and that this Christian M. Dillon lawyer seems to be involved in a lot of these companies. I checked on the BBB website on his company's rating and they weren't good, so I wonder if he keeps making new companies until their ratings get very bad or what.
Anyway, my parents are now treating this as a scam and are going to call the mortgage company tomorrow to find out if this lawyer's office even contacted them or anything. The problem with that though, is that the Dillon office warned that our mortgage company will deny having contact with them and try intimidating us which is believable, so it's sort of hard to know who to trust. I'm also contemplating whether or not a charge back for the $3500 will be possible if the contract is as unprofessional as the rest of the correspondence and has no real signature, but I won't know about that until tomorrow (Also I'm wondering if it is lawful for a person such as John Rapp to accept the upfront payment on behalf of the lawyer, since I don't see him on the DRE directory).
I'd appreciate any opinions or thoughts on this matter. I apologize if this is long and confusing too, it certainly is for me. Also, who should we trust about this and where can we report this if it is a scam? I mostly think we will need to consult a lawyer about this too, so if anyone knows someone who deals with this in the SF Bay area, California, that would be great. Thank you.Reason for Editing (Minimum 15 Characters)
Asked on 7:04 pm Jan 18th 2009
Anonymous
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I am in the process on doing a loan modification with a company in Santa Rosa CA
SIMPAC DOC LLC, address is 19 courthouse Square, ste 208, Santa Rosa CA 95404- phone 1-800-236-1186-lic 01378482-
I am in the process in fill in out the paper work, I have not mail any money to them yet
The fee is $485.00 - I am getting $200.00 if they are not able to lower my payments.....what is your advice? Please help me out.
Thank you very much ,
Awaiting for your replyReason for Editing (Minimum 15 Characters)
Answered on 12:22 pm Feb 11th 2009
Anonymous
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Sorry to hear about this situation. There are people out there taking advantage of this challenge homeowner time.
It is best if people take some time to get a simple education on how to do loan modification themselves. Save on the fees.Don't pay crazy fees to get your loan modified. It's not rocket science. You just need to learn the secret to how to do it yourself. You can do that by going here:
http://loanmod.freeonlineadvertising.info Reason for Editing (Minimum 15 Characters)
Answered on 5:52 pm Feb 12th 2009
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I am using this company right now- USMAC law group /Dillon and we also were instructed to not make payments (we were current on our loan) and it is going on the fourth month now of not paying. I contacted a local lawyer and he advised us to contact our mortgage company asap because it can still go into forclosure. We were also told the account would be frozen and NOT effect our credit - well USMAC /Dillon Law Offices lied. It IS on our credit report and now we have to pay late fees on the mortgages in additional to all the back payments. We can not get an answer from anyone either, we are just told it will be done soon and don't worry. Stay Away!Reason for Editing (Minimum 15 Characters)
Answered on 1:19 am Feb 13th 2009
Anonymous
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My '2 cents'?..if you can't get clarification on answers that you are looking for, from so-called 'Modification Companies', then i would go along with their 'program'. If it's becomong a 'struggle', you probably don't need them anyway. :wink:Reason for Editing (Minimum 15 Characters)
Answered on 7:52 am Feb 13th 2009
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I hired this company USMAC Christian M. Dillon to do a loan modification for me only to find out the hard way that IT IS A BIG SCAM! I had to send in my 3495.00 before they could do anything. I was advised to stop making my house payments in order for them to be able to work out a deal with my mortgage company. Once they had my money all I ever got was the run around from them. Telling me that they were working on it and had no new news to report. Well I have received the Notice of Default from my mortgage company now and of course they have no answers for me and will not return phone calls. I was told in the beginning that I had nothing to lose because if they couldn't help me I would get my money refunded. Well they've taken my money and I'm losing my home as well. Please don't trust these people. They are a scam.Reason for Editing (Minimum 15 Characters)
Answered on 8:17 pm Feb 18th 2009
Anonymous
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Please contact me with your info they are a scam compnay I have another client same thing happened as well
4k tooken from her in OCT and nothing was done recieved a letter saying she was denied with in 2 weeks,,'not good,
Please contact me with your info they are a scam company I have another client same thing happened as well!! ANd we are going to get her money back!!! Mr, Dillon also has recieved 2 DUI's look him up!!
ALSO IF ANYONE NEEDS A 100% DRE APPROVED AND LEGIT COMPANY!!
WITH PROOF OF MODIFICATIONS BEING DONE PLEASE CONTACT ME
TAKE CARE AND LETS ALL BEWARE OFF THE SCAMMERS!!
WE WILL SHUT DOWN ALL OFF THESE COMPANIES TO PROTECT THE HOMEOWNERS!!!!!!!!!!Reason for Editing (Minimum 15 Characters)
Answered on 11:44 pm Feb 20th 2009
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I just got a call from our wonderful Christian Dillion loan modification spec. After 3 plus months of not making mortgage payments on their advice, B of A comes back and says they'll lower the monthly $3000.00 payment by [i]sit down now[/i]$300.
[b][color=Red][/color]WOW! I could hardly believe the great deal my $3000 has produced. [/b]Reason for Editing (Minimum 15 Characters)
Answered on 12:53 pm Feb 25th 2009
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[quote]After 3 plus months of not making mortgage payments on their advice, B of A comes back and says they'll lower the monthly $3000.00 payment by sit down now$300. [/quote]
Not to upset you, as apparently this didn't meet your expectations, but what were you expecting exactly? Not to defend this Christian Dillion firm, as I've never heard of them... just speaking about modifications in general. A $300/month decrease is a 10% decrease to the $3,000/month payment. So it's not a stick in the eye. And if you paid $3,000 to get this modification, you make up your cash outlay in 10 months... that's not terrible payback on an "investment", which is maybe how you should view the fee (although any fee paid for a modification is probably too much in my opinion). And then presumably you go onto save $300/month for another 20-30 years.
So I just come back to, what was your expectations for your modification?Reason for Editing (Minimum 15 Characters)
Answered on 4:28 pm Feb 25th 2009
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There is a free new resource I just found because my aunt was going through a similar situation with another loan mod company. It was called LoanFraudRecovery.org, I don't have the number infront of me though.
I called for her because she doesn't speak English well and they set us up to speak with an attorney. I think we're going to go with them to help us because they don't charge anything from us because its contingency basis. They said they will try to get the money back plus damages because they really didn't do anything for my aunt for months, they didn't even contact her lender. Maybe this can help your family too. Good luck!Reason for Editing (Minimum 15 Characters)
Answered on 9:22 am Feb 26th 2009
Anonymous
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I had just seen an advertisment on TV today, for this USMAC financial. I called and talked to Jeff Watkins. He told me it would cost me $3795.00 to refinance our loan, and we could get an interest rate of between 2-4%. My payment would go down $700 a month, and he would call me back in 1 hr to get it going. I called the BBB to see if they had anything on them, and they had me call our State Dept of Finance, which told me it was a scam. Only work with local companies.. I am sooooooooooo glad that i didn't fall for this. We lost $900.00, on a previous scam collection agency, and now i check into companies before i get involved. I hope your parents get their money back. I know how it feels to get ripped off like that. I don't know how they can sleep at night!Reason for Editing (Minimum 15 Characters)
Answered on 8:27 pm Feb 26th 2009
Anonymous
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