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For loan modification guidance or to report a scam, call:

Rita Santos was having trouble keeping up with her mortgage payments. When served with foreclosure papers in December 2008, she approached a financial company whose television advertisements promised foreclosure assistance.

The company told the single mother of a son with disabilities it could modify her home loan for a fee of $1,600. So Rita wrote a check for $600 to get the process started. But when she called the office to follow up, no one would take her calls. Her messages went unreturned for months.

My heart goes out to anyone who has been taken by these scam artists.

When she finally did hear back, it was a demand for the other $1,000—even though the company had nothing to show for the money and time Rita had already invested. "I was desperate," Rita recalls. "My heart goes out to anyone who has been taken by these scam artists."

Rita called the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for advice. That’s how she found local NeighborWorks® America affiliate Centro Campesino Farmworker Center, Inc.—and discovered it's against the law for companies like the one she was working with to charge for loan modification assistance. Centro Campesino immediately began working with Rita, explaining step-by-step how to file for a loan modification on her own.

It took a detailed diary, notarized paperwork, two court extensions, even letters to state legislators, but Rita was approved in September 2009. Her home is safe, thanks to trusted advice from Centro Campesino and her own initiative.

"There’s help out there," Rita says. "But as the homeowner, you have to be prepared to do your part, too."

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