A press release issued this week announced a first-of-its-kind complaint brought jointly by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI), taking aim at various companies and their leaders for operating sham mortgage relief programs.
The Central District of California enforcement action said the defendants duped struggling homeowners.
The agencies aver that defendants Home Matters USA, Academy Home Services, Atlantic Pacific Service Group, Golden Home Services America, and company owners Dominic Ahiga and Roger Scott Dyer, charged consumers in exchange for promising to help them negotiate with mortgage lenders, even representing that they were affiliated with government-sponsored COVID-19 relief programs.
The FTC and DFPI’s investigation found that the defendants targeted homeowners in distress with deceptive telemarketing calls, text messages, and online ads, promising quick aid for struggling mortgage holders. Yet, the agencies claim that when consumers paid for the defendants’ services, they rarely if ever got the promised modifications.
The complaint specifies that the defendants misrepresented their services, claiming that they could “‘beat the system,’” and peppering mortgage holders with “bogus claims” about specific changes to their mortgages like lowered interest rates or payments. Further, by telling consumers not to pay their mortgages while using the defendants’ “services,” the companies caused them to face late fees and lower credit scores.
Worse yet, some consumers found themselves in foreclosure after signing letters to their mortgage holders requiring them to communicate only with the defendants, and in turn, missing late payment and default notifications.
The suit says that the accused practices violate numerous laws and regulations, including the FTC Act, the Mortgage Assistance Relief Services Rule, the Telemarketing Sales Rule, the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act, and the California Consumer Financial Protection Law. Last week, the court overseeing the matter entered a temporary restraining order against the defendants, temporarily shutting down the operation and freezing their assets.
