I don’t have a lot to add to this NY Times article about people who were subprime mortgage brokers and have now morphed into “mortgage modification” specialists, charging homeowners $1,000 to $4,000 to help renegotiate their mortgage, but then doing nothing except keeping the money. The FTC is slapping cease and desist orders on them, but it doesn’t seem to be stopping the problem. Are people really that greedy and awful?
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Thoughtbasket 
“Are people really that greedy and awful?”
People in general? I’d say no. Individual people? Absolutely. The reality is that mortgage brokers, and indeed many banks of various types (investment, savings and loan, etc.) have been carrying out all kinds of shady (if not flat out illegal) activity for quite some time now, especially since a lot of anti-trust and bank regulations and laws have been repealed in recent history.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t any good banks, or mortgage brokers honestly doing their best to help people re-negotiate or resettle their loans and mortgages, but except for that companies advertisements (and the bad companies make the same adverts), it doesn’t exactly get reported in the news.
Part of the problem is that these people don’t tend to get arrested and put on trial. Sure, Madoff did, but that’s one guy, and there’s plenty more where that came from.
Check out the link below for an interesting take on whether people should be arrested. I’ll say more on this later.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/07/24/economic_crisis_part_three/
Are people really that greedy and awful?
Welcome to the meltdown. Jobs are lost. Homes are lost. Predators are still at work.