Group demands action on foreclosure scams

May 07, 2010

DEMONSTRATION: The Riverside County DA's office says fraud is a high priority and is investigating 350 cases.

09:42 PM PDT on Friday, May 7, 2010

By LESLIE BERKMAN
The Press-Enterprise

A nonprofit organization representing 23 faith congregations in Riverside and San Bernardino counties demonstrated Friday, calling for county government to give higher priority to fighting foreclosure fraud with prosecutions and education.

A group of about a dozen people, including scam victims, gathered outside the building that houses the Riverside County district attorney's offices, carrying placards that demanded "Stop Fraud" in Spanish and English.

Speaking for the grassroots organization, called Inland Congregations United for Change, Tim Lucas, a member of St. Catherine of Alexandria Church in Riverside, said they are asking the district attorney's office, the assessors office and the board of supervisors for help.

Elizabeth Ayala, another spokeswoman, said the most common scam occurs when homeowners desperate to avoid foreclosure pay $5,000 to a company that promises it will negotiate a loan modification and then disappears without delivering on that promise.

Ayala said such scam artists gain new clients by placing fliers on car windshields at the parking lots where legitimate foreclosure prevention workshops are being conducted or by advertising in radio spots that follow religious broadcasts.

Charley Piatt, a priest from Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Riverside, said he has heard from six parishioners in the last six months who believe they were defrauded, including people who discovered a second mortgage was taken out on their family home in the name of a stranger.

Lucas complained that the district attorney's real estate unit does not have enough staff to handle its workload.

Also Lucas complained that the district attorney has told the group that the majority of foreclosure fraud complaints should be prosecuted as civil rather than criminal cases. He said that would require victims, many of which are of modest means, to hire lawyers.

In response to the criticism, Ryan Hightower, spokesman for the Riverside County district attorney, said "We work with the resources we have and make the most of them."

He said real estate fraud already is a high priority for the office and every complaint is evaluated on an individual basis for possible criminal prosecution.

There are 350 cases in some stage of investigation or prosecution, Hightower said.

He said the district attorney's office also has taken steps to prevent fraud through public education and has updated its real estate fraud brochure to give consumers guidance on how to spot scams.

The brochure can be found on the DA's website: http://www.rivcoda.org/pdf/RealEstateFraudBrochure.pdf

"We realize $5,000 to a person in foreclosure is a huge amount of money and we take it seriously," said Mike Silverman, supervising deputy district attorney who oversees the real estate fraud unit.

Besides grabbing public attention to push for criminal prosecution of foreclosure fraud, Ayala said the grassroots faith group also is concentrating on consumer education.

In that endeavor, she said the organization has joined forces with the Riverside County Fair Housing Council and Springboard, other nonprofit organizations that provide foreclosure counseling free of charge.