Last month, it was announced that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission were filing nine lawsuits against companies and individuals that collected more than $25 million in illegal advance fees with false promises to prevent foreclosures.
That was on a national level.
At the same time, 15 state Attorney General offices announced an additional 32 actions against foreclosure prevention scammers.
Often in these scams, the scammers offer delinquent homeowners security from mortgage servicers who are seeking to foreclose.
They promise the homeowners home retention, often take fees upfront and do little in return.
The homeowners often still face foreclosure, and receive none of the promised compensation.
Well, as HousingWire can now exclusively reveal, here are those 15 states that are aggressively going after these scammers.
The list was provided by the CFPB, and for the purpose of the list, we gathered some additional information.
For example, does the state perform foreclosures judicially, (yes or no)? Also, how long is the typical homeowner in foreclosure? Average days delinquent for the entire nation is 995 days, according to Black Knight Financial Services.
But what about in the states where foreclosure scammers are being actively hunted down?
Here are the 15 states:
1. Arizona (no)
Average days delinquent: 563
2. Delaware (yes)
Average days delinquent: 857
3. Florida (yes)
Average days delinquent: 1,246
4. Indiana (yes)
Average days delinquent: 657
5. Illinois (yes)
Average days delinquent: 856
6. Kansas (yes)
Average days delinquent: 590
7. Louisiana (yes)
Average days delinquent: 773
8. Maryland (no)
Average days delinquent: 1,148
9. Michigan (no)
Average days delinquent: 525
10. New Mexico (yes)
Average days delinquent: 824
11. New York (yes)
Average days delinquent: 1,350
12. North Carolina (no)
Average days delinquent: 652
13. Ohio (yes)
Average days delinquent: 659
14. Washington (no)
Average days delinquent: 911
15. Wisconsin (yes)
Average days delinquent: 573
