A U.S. district court has ordered two companies, Hope Now Modifications, LLC, Hope Now Financial Services Corp. and New Hope Property LLC, to stop falsely advertising that they are part of the government-endorsed mortgage assistance network and that they successfully modify mortgages for almost all their clients or refund their money. The court order was requested by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The Attorney General of New Jersey, Ann Milgram, has also filed a complaint against Hope Now Modifications, Hope Now Financial Services Corp. in New Jersey’s Superior Court. The Attorney General’s office filed a separate complaint in Superior Court against New Hope Property LLC.
“With many consumers desperate for relief and afraid they might lose their homes in these difficult economic times, some unscrupulous individuals prey on these fears for their own financial gain, said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. “The New Hope and Hope Now scammers have given consumers false hope under the guise of the government-endorsed HOPE NOW Alliance. We won’t hesitate to take action against these types of con artists now and in the future.”
The Commission alleges the defendants are not affiliated with the legitimate HOPE NOW Alliance mortgage assistance and that they commonly divert the equivalent of one month’s mortgage payment as a fee for their services then fail to help distressed homeowners modify their mortgages and deny them refunds. The FTC charged the defendants with violating federal law by misrepresenting that they could obtain mortgage loan modifications for consumers in all or virtually all cases and that they would refund consumers’ money if they did not.
According to the FTC, the defendants advertised, marketed and sold mortgage loan modification services to consumers nationwide through Web sites including www.newhopemodifications.com and www.hopenowmod.com. As of Sunday evening, the questionable messages had been removed and replaced with messages saying the sites are temporarily under construction. Both sites previously contained statements designed to induce consumers to purchase their services by calling toll free numbers where operators promise they can modify their mortgage loans and prevent foreclosure, according to the complaint filed by the FTC. Callers are then reportedly asked to pay an up-front “mitigation escrow fee” before the defendants begin working for them. the Attorney General’s complaint includes text allededly from the web site www.hopenowmod.com implying that consumers in 48 states and the District of Columbia may have fallen victim to Hope Now Modifications Hope Now Financial Services deceptive advertising and sales practices.
The FTC complaints were unanimously approved by the Commission in 4-0 votes and filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey on March 17, 2009. The court issued temporary restraining orders and froze the assets of both companies on 19 March. Copies of the complaints are available from the FTC web site at www.ftc.gov. The FTC seeks to make the restraining orders permanent.
The suit filed by the New Jersey Attorney General includes three counts of violating New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act (CFA) by Hope Now Modifications Hope Now Financial Services and the company’s principals. The company is located in Cherry Hill, NJ.
The complaint filed against New Hope Property and the principals of the company by the Attorney General of New Jersey includes three counts of violating New Jersey’s consumer Fraud Act, as well. In addition, New Hope Property faces a fourth count of violating New Jersey’s Debt Adjustment and Credit Counseling Act. New Hope Property LLC is located in Trenton, New Jersey.
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“Crunch, The Game For Utter Bankers” is a card game for anyone with a distinctly gallows sense of humor:
This is the latest product from the fine warped folks at TerrorBull Games and – judging by the website — it is as bitter and cynical as their last number: War On Terror: The Board Game.
An average game sees you bribing your way out of government investigations, fending off aggressive takeovers and forcing debt onto the unsuspecting public. Meanwhile, reward your hard work by taking inappropriate bonuses and – when no one’s looking – brazenly embezzling your bank’s own funds and hiding them about your person. Crunch is unique in that to win, players are coaxed into cheating.
Fittingly, the game will hit stores on April 1, but it is NOT a prank.
Full disclosure alert:
That said, if the game is half as fun to play as the website is to read it will be great.
Although the problems inherent in, say, spending over a trillion dollars on a war, while your country’s exports diminish year-on-year, would be apparent to the average school child, somehow everyone seemed caught off guard by this. And, being simple people, we started looking around to find out who to blame. …
Unfortunately, you can’t bomb the economy into shape, so looking for culprits was largely a waste of time. Even when bank bosses finally came under fire, it all felt like a bit of a diversion. Like sitting in an upturned, burning car and taking that moment to try and work out where you went wrong, when the car itself has no breaks, no steering wheel, tyres made out of butter and wood instead of glass for windows. And it’s not even a car, it’s an angry lion on roller skates and you’ve been trying to drive it.
Not sure if this will be as much fun as some tar and feathers – but I have my hopes up.
Constantine von Hoffman is a veteran business journalist and social media consultant. He write the blog CollateralDamage, a satirical look at marketing and business.He is also an avid board gamer.
