The ink was barely dry on the government’s $25 billion mortgage settlement with the nation’s biggest banks earlier this year when scam artists seized on the opportunity.
In Alabama, struggling homeowners received calls promising them cash payments from the settlement, if only they would provide the routing number to their bank accounts. In Illinois, they were told they qualified under the settlement for a loan refinancing, but only after they paid a hefty upfront fee. In California, the attorney general herself received a call claiming that she was eligible for aid from the settlement.
