ModPilot YourMortgageRights Your mortgage lender is unhappy: don't be afraid, and don't let scammers get happier and fatter ripping you off. It won't help you keep your house. Carlsbad, California

Unlike the previous writer, I had a fantastic experience with ModPilot!  Yes, it's $1999, and yes, that's a lot of money.  But they do offer a refund if they don't achieve a loan modification for you.  My guess is the previous write is working on that now.  You can't expect much more than that.

Here's the thing that the writer, and most people, don't get about loan modification -- you've got to do the WORK!  Yes, ModPilot will give you the forms, the information, and the guidance, but you're going to have to do the budgeting, calculations, etc.  Since most people have NEVER drawn out a budget, much less lived on one, they are surprised when they have to sit down and figure out how much they spend each month on everything.

For me, that part of it was challenging -- and probably the most worthwhile part of the program!  Because now I have a workable budget, and one that is in the guidelines that lenders are looking for!

I'm on a trial modification now and will be permanent in 3 months.  The payment is $300 lower than my original payment, but -- and it's a big "but" -- that INCLUDES escrows for property tax and insurance (which I was having to come up with myself several times a year!).  So, it saves me a bundle.  It's actually far less than I was going to have to pay in rent once I was foreclosed on!

If you're willing to sit down and DO YOUR HOMEWORK, and learn, ModPilot will guide you all the way.  Yes, they're hard to get through to, but I dedicated a line in my office to them, and was always available when they called back, and they always did call back.

I don't work for them -- I'm just a guy trying to stay in my home.  What are you willing to do to stay in yours?  Stop complaining and take charge.  ModPilot was the first firm that lived up to that promise. 

This complaint filed by the author started bad. But bad. But very bad.

However, the manager of ModPilot after two or three days, called the customer and offered a settlement that was nothing but fair.

This concluded and resolved the complaint.

There is no more subject of miscontentment against Mod Pilot, which has honored its terms of reimbursement policy.

Like millions, every month you wonder whether how to feed the little ones, let alone keep them a roof. You are a responsible family provider, father, wife, both. Perhaps you lost your job, perhaps it is something else. It is tough out there: you are NOT ALONE. Please read this report. Hang tough, and you'll make it.

Now is the time when surveys, consumer agencies, banks, credit cards companies, and all others have already noticed your spending habits have changed, due to a difficult economy as said above. SO what? For you, it means nothing because if you are like millions of us, you'll recover. But there is something, somebody, or rather a body of someones that belong to a club which normally does not operate so aggressively and freely: the scammers.

Those people have also smelled, heard, and spied on the same signals. Pretty soon, they know well that you are in trouble and what they are going to try first is to gauge your degree of difficulties, and desperateness if it exists. It is when they will have assessed that you are the most vulnerable and will offer the least resistance against the scams they are ready to deploy on you, that these "make an easy buck - or rather thousands of them" will strike, and knock at your door.

Let's be honest: you are stressed to the limits. You have no understanding or even no idea of how to defend yourself and your love ones against your hardship using a constructed and logical plan because the tough times you have been through have eroded your judgment and you are panicking. This happens to the smartest people, to everyone. It is human. Sometimes these situations even result in severe conflicts in families where harmony used to be the rule, with rejection of responsibility one on another, break-aparts, etc. It is important to understand what is happening to you: you are just ready for being "grilled" and for biting on the bait offered by a salvator that comes offering an easy, miracle solution. Those people are not here to help you. They are focused on a single goal: take advantage of your misfortune, making it worse. There is a new term that emerged within the last few years: "predators".

Last month, just as for the last six ones, I was pondering if it would be better to save a little to make Christmas look "normal", or to dig further into an already dry well to try to pay our monthly mortgage. With a month or two late, the question of a loan modification obviously had already come up. And somehow, I have not figured out - but it does not matter, that automatically happens through a well-built network of information -, the scammers' club had heard about it. It is amazing how much these predators can smell from, in terms of distance.

As sure as I had never heard about a program of that sort, the simple fact of talking to my lender about it or something else, attracted them like flies. I received, or rather I was bombarded, by a flow of emails from several companies all representing themselves with an honest facade, usually a fake and good Samaritan Government flavor. Those, I usually spot pretty easily. Remember this: the Government will never scam you offering a rescuing service, or a mandatory certificate, etc., in exchange of exorbitant or out-of-line sums of money.

But this time, that was a Company named ModPilot, although I suspect they are using alternate names such as YourMortgageRigths, an so on. They too use our President's picture, and all these official marks. What is interesting about these scammers is that they are very difficult to track for regulatory agencies. They are extremely successful in convincing you that they are legitimate, despite gross evidence of the contrary. Yet, when you try to pin them down and to report them there is either nobody in the closet, or a perfect, innocent and logical answer. They have trained for such skills thousands, thousands and thousands of times, and with each successful scam, get better at it. These are not what you call good Salesmen. They compare to fast-mutating viruses, for computers of for living things. Let's face it, they will always have an hedge on you. Perhaps another time I will explain how I think it is possible to defeat them, but we are drifting out of focus: I have just been had...

The rest of the story is rather boring. I made the mistake to answer one of these emails from ModPilot, naively insisting on a shielding: "serious inquiries only". There we were, I was taken on for the ride within 24 hours. Very very smart tactics. Be careful: these people are dangerous. They will offer you an open check-out with the BBB, for example, knowing that in 90% of the cases, you [I mean not you particularly, but the customer] will decline. They will offer you to sleep over their mortgage modification program just giving you two figures, which even me at the time, thought were a little suspect. For example: "sleep over it and talk to your wife, etc., but write down those figures I give you: $4,000 (that one they got from you, it's your mortgage payment); compare it to $2200 (that they invented from asking you what is your current interest rate and "promising" a reduction of 2%-4% range). It's literally pulled out of the blue, but incredibly powerful on your mind without you even realizing it: You hang-up full of hopes, they say good night and remind you not to forget to also talk to the dog about it.

The next day you (I) receive a call asking what the night had provided in terms of good advice. Of course I do not even have the time to wake up. They are ready to go: I am taken to the ModPilot website (really an AutoPilot). Of course I need a credit card. Of course the best choice is the most expensive program, the one that "everyone chooses". It always remind me of the waiter in any restaurant recommending the local wine (only one available in the cellar) or whatever using this ultimate authoritative argument: "that's the one I drink myself". Well in that case, how could we not take it ourselves? The problem is that by the time we leave the restaurant and have been a week in bed with food poisoning, there is no one to attest what happened to the waiter... You get the picture.

Dollars $1995.00. "Well Sir, you made a splendid choice. That is the one I made myself 6 months ago, and I do not regret it." Of course, he is talking only about the choice he made to lure so many poor idiots, including myself, I am not ashamed to admit it, in the same scheme. "From now on, you will have a near 24/7, but one-on-one dedicated counselor that will get your loan modified in, ... let's say, hmmmuhh..., six weeks". With the six weeks, usually there is a higher voice pitch and it abruptly ends the sentence. That is all what's now glimmering in front of your children's eyes: six-weeks; Christmas; I'll be done by Christmas!

Please, PLEASE people and my dear friends, never do believe these scammers:

For one, it is illegal to ask money for counseling on a loan modification, unless there is some real service involved, such as that of a skilled attorney who negotiates with your lender. Notice this, it's very important: if there is money involved, especially at the level of the thousands, you need to make sure you are GUARANTEED a seriously specialized service. Not free and convenient access to the local gazette remodeled with new and fresh colors. For two, NO ONE in this industry has ever seen a loan modication approved in less than 3 to 6 months (and if I am wrong, please let me know). Get informed, especially if something sounds a little funny. Check the internet, or this site. Learn how to recognize all these little funny [phony] indices. There is always a tomorrow if you want to act. Not the kind I was talking about earlier, but a tomorrow when you'll come back with information, not just two figures out of the blue that can make anyone salivate.

Anyways, let's finish my story. Within 4-5 days, I had heard nothing from them. Within 10 days, I had received a package that was indeed intended for me, but with a completely erroneous address [Style Barking Hill, instead of Parkers House, you get the picture], although I was run on the phone at purchase time through a "verification department" (so official), to double-check my address. Within 2 days of receiving the package with a CD containing documents that plagiarized what one can find on the website of any lender for free. Within one day after that I called to try to reach my "personal one-on-one counselor". It was 5 pm on a week day, I had a question regarding why a family of four would only spend $400/month in food (among a few others examples given). May be we have an eating disorder, but that sounded dangerously low, especially for those living in California. Within 3 days after that, my personal assistant had not replied (I suspect she had a good week end).

Within a few days of the above, I called back the Company (they do answer their phones, one has to admit). Requested a refund, and also HAD officially requested a refund by disputing the charge via my credit card bank weeks before. I was told that "Oh, that is so unfortunate, but your are 3 days late from when you received the package, that is our policy". Interestingly, this policy never had appeared when one [me] had to click the famous button that guided me for payment instructions. Very efficient I should say, and this time no mistake, unlike the misdirected shipping.

The BEST of THE BEST of THE BEST of these scammers: for "quality assurance and educational purposes reasons", all information I had entered on the website at the time of payment (shall we say Rip-Off now, I think that's legitimate), had been erased. Thus I was left with one of the famous classics: a car roundabout with six exits, all of which are only one-way, inbound: I don't have a sales receipt, hence the bank claims they can't do anything even though the charge appears on my statement with clearly the name of the the Company, ModPilot. Without an official receipt, Mr. Banker can't do anything. The receipt has been erased from the website for educational reasons. AND, the imbecile is ME, I concede without inappropriate egotistic attitude.

Do all these things, signs, neons and whistles ring a bell for you?

I am reporting the story so that whoever you are, wherever, and no matter how bad your situation is, DO NOT FALL PREY OF THESE SCAMMERS. They call themselves ModPilot, MyMortgageRights, they may be other flashy names. The subject of scams, the techniques, the stories are not new. Why scams are particularly dangerous when they deal with mortgages? Because that touches your house; their most expensive possession for most people; the roof under which you sleep; home sweet home; and the thought of seeing this endangered is unbearable, so your defenses go down.

VERY IMPORTANTLY, please recognize the warning signs in what I went through and have written here. This story is full of them. Another classic is being bounced back and forth on the sales call and never be talking to the same person: if you ask, the previous one is usually gone to lunch, or just left for the afternoon, or gone to...[won't tell you]. There are dozens of these predators out there.

YOU CAN get a loan modification, and an honest counselor or organization right at your door, in your City or Town, where you live. The locals actually are the best to know that complex housing market and how your loan would be best modified. Please do not do otherwise. You have time.

As for me, I am pursuing my own avenues to modify my loan, and I am trying to recover the money that was stolen from me by Mod Pilot. I am sure we will be OK.