With the downturn in the real estate market in full swing, more homeowners are finding that they are unable to stop foreclosure by simply selling the house. Home values have fallen, making refinancing another option that homeowners no longer have available. Nearly all of the recent news relating to foreclosure has been focused on helping these homeowners avoid the various foreclosure scams that have begun appearing in large numbers, as criminals target the high valued asset of real estate.

These news articles have begun detailing one of the more well-known scams, which involves tricking the homeowner into signing over the deed to the home in exchange for an offer of cash or an equity loan. The fact is, though, that these scammers take over ownership of the home and pay the homeowners an incredibly small price. The foreclosure does not end, and the homeowners are eventually evicted by the new owners, the scammers, or the bank once the house goes to sheriff sale.

Another scam that is appearing in the news more often is that of "foreclosure rescue service" firms. These companies also trick foreclosure victims into signing over the deed to their homes, and promise to pay the mortgage. However, the homeowners are charged rent, which goes straight into the scammers' pockets, are evicted, and then another family is moved in, also to be evicted once the foreclosure process has completed. In this way, the foreclosure scam is responsible for two families ending up without a home, rather than just one.

The sheer number of these types of news articles is amazing, considering that they are the result of poor consumer education regarding how the real estate market and their own mortgages work. If a homeowner is facing foreclosure, then the best defense would be to learn more about how the foreclosure process works, rather than trust a third party who may not have the best interests of the homeowner at heart, and who will actually benefit if the house if foreclosed.

It is this ignorance that homeowners have to fight against even more than their lender. Ignorance of how to stop foreclosure legitimately has cost homeowners thousands of dollars and the loss of their homes to unscrupulous foreclosure scam companies. The loss of a home to a scammer is much too high a price to pay for remaining ignorant of how foreclosure works.

If homeowners are in a hardship situation and are in danger of foreclosure, the best bet would be to follow a few basic guidelines: understand any documents they are asked to sign, never sign away the house unless a sale is taking place, never send money up front for vague "services" which may never be performed, and know all of the options that can be used to stop foreclosure.

Many victims of foreclosure feel that they are in the dark about their situation, and lack the education necessary to foreclosure scam companies that operate in the mortgage and real estate market.

All to often, uneducated homeowners end up trusting a scam company to help them work with their lender or provide other mysterious services. Many times, the company takes money up front, does nothing, and leaves the homeowners to fend for themselves a few days before the property is sold at auction. When this happens, the homeowners need to act very, very quickly to postpone the foreclosure process or they run the risk of losing their homes in a matter of hours or days.

This entire situation, and the extra stress of being turned down at the last second, can be completely averted by the homeowners gaining a basic education of the foreclosure process. The scam companies will obviously not provide the homeowners with this vital education, as they try to get the homeowners to send them money for services that are either unnecessary, or ineffective. The homeowners will invariably left in a worse position after losing several hundred or thousand dollars to the scam that could have been set aside to reinstate the mortgage.

The avoidance of scams is just the simplest reason that homeowners in foreclosure need to learn their options and how they can stop foreclosure on their own. Of course, education should not be considered a substitute for action, but having a basic awareness of the foreclosure process can help homeowners understand how they can save their homes most effectively. The homeowners will also be able to negotiate with their lender and speak intelligently about the issues. Most representatives of mortgage companies do not have detailed instruction regarding how foreclosure works.

The reason homeowners are so often confused about the foreclosure process is the fact that, as soon as they miss a mortgage payment, the entire world changes for them. The mortgage company starts calling daily, threatening the homeowners with the loss of their home, and never explains what options may be available to stop the foreclosure. Having an awareness of how foreclosure works will help the homeowners work with their lender, understand their available options, and avoid the loss of thousands of dollars to unscrupulous foreclosure scam operators.

Recent research done by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) has raised some disquieting allegations of a correlation between foreclosure, prepayment penalties, and race, in some areas. According to its website, the Center is "a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and policy organization dedicated to protecting homeownership and family wealth by working to eliminate abusive financial practices." The studies done by the CRL are typically well-researched and fairly comprehensive, and we have referred to their work before.

The research indicates that borrowers living in minority areas who have sub-prime mortgages (meaning their credit was not great when they first obtained their loan), are nearly 35% more likely to have prepayment penalties for their loan than if they were living in white neighborhoods. In an article by Originator Times, Hilary Shelton, Director of the NAACP Washington, DC Bureau, states that the report from the CRL "provides more empirical evidence that African-Americans are second-class citizens in the subprime market, and that skin color determines the terms of credit that a family receives."

More disturbing is the evidence that having a high prepayment penalty for a mortgage does nothing to affect the interest rate of the loan. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Thirty-year loans have an average interest rate that is 40 basis points higher than expected for a subprime loan with a prepayment penalty. This is surprising, mainly due to the fact that sellers of these loans often tell consumers that the prepay penalty acts to lower the interest rate and monthly payment. However, this clearly seems to be a lie on the part of some mortgage companies, used to trick homeowners into paying higher costs both through the monthly payment and when the homeowners attempts to sell or refinance.

Increasing mortgage payments through ARMs and high prepayment penalties are two of many circumstances that can cause homeowners to face foreclosure and then find themselves locked into their home. As interest rates rise, and payments dramatically go up, victims of foreclosure may not be able to stop foreclosure by selling or refinancing before the home is lost.

While the loan is in default, but not in foreclosure, the prepayment penalty increases the cost of paying off the loan, making it more difficult to qualify for alternate financing. And by the time the loan goes into foreclosure, the bank may have to give up the prepay, but the extra interest, late fees, and court costs may be much higher than the original prepayment penalty. This sequence of events can lead to the homeowners not being able to stop foreclosure either before or after the foreclosure process has begun in earnest.

The best way to stop foreclosure is simply to know all of your options, and find out how the foreclosure process works. The complaint we've heard most from foreclosure victims is that they feel they are in the dark about what is happening to their homes. They don't know when the sale is, how far behind they are, or why the legal fees are so expensive.

In fact, many homeowners end up trusting a "foreclosure assistance" company to help them and end up sending these companies hundreds or thousands of dollars. When nothing happens and the homeowner is denied any further help from the foreclosure scam, the victim may find that there are only a few days left before the sheriff sale of the property. At this late date, there are several options to stop the sheriff sale and stop foreclosure, but the chances of success, unfortunately, decline quickly.

It is unfortunate that this entire situation could have been avoided if the homeowners trusted themselves, rather than a company who may have a financial interest if the house is lost, and certainly has no financial interest once the homeowners have paid the for useless services up-front. Paying for mitigation services before they are performed can put foreclosure victims in a much worse situation if the bank negotiations do not work. The homeowners may be out thousands of dollars that could have been used to pay back the mortgage.

Obviously, this is just one reason why homeowners should take the little amount of time necessary to learn the basics of the foreclosure process. Granted, mere education will not magically stop foreclosure, but it can help homeowners understand what they are getting into, what the chances of success are, and what the consequences for each option are. And having this amount of real estate education will put the homeowners on equal footing with their lender and other foreclosure companies, whose representatives may also have only a passing awareness of the foreclosure process.

Foreclosure victims are often in the dark about their situation, and confused about why the world seems to change as soon as they miss a payment. But learning about how the mortgage and real estate industries pursue foreclosure is one of the best steps a homeowner can take to stop foreclosure. Knowledge also provides great insurance when faced with a potential foreclosure scam. Homeowners will be able to see through the scammer, avoid the loss of their homes, and stop foreclosure in the most effective way possible.

Merry Christmas to all of our visitors.

No real post today. Just enjoy the holiday!

Most of the information in this post comes from a study done by the Center for Responsible Lending, in a comprehensive report entitled "Losing Ground."

Of all the loans made in the sub-prime market in 2005 and 2006, nearly two million are expected to go into foreclosure, causing familes to lose a total of $164,000,000,000. That's $164 Billion. with a "B." To make these numbers work, one out of five homeowners will lose their homes. That is a huge rate of foreclosure for any market, even if it is the sub-prime loans that are the focus of this study. And why are these loans expected to have such a high foreclosure rate? The study mentions some of the causes:

The report discusses a number of factors that drive subprime foreclosures—these include adjustable rate mortgages with steep built-in rate and payment increases, prepayment penalties, limited income documentation, and no escrow for taxes and insurance. We also determine that these features cause a higher risk of default regardless of the borrower’s credit score.

These are, of course, some of the very same issues that we have been discussing and warning against for quite some time, most recently yesterday.

Adjustable rate mortgages, huge pre-pays, no doc loans, no escrows, all combined with very little knowledge of the mortgage process for most homeowners. Honestly, how can any mortgage company expect their debtors to pay for loans like this?

Well, of course, they don't expect homeowners to pay the loans, and they are prepraed when the loans inevitably go into default. In fact, they prepare for this from the same day that the loan is funded. The original company that funds the loan immediately sells it to a group of investors, who sell the payment collecting rights to a mortgage servicing company, which keeps their good name out of the eventual foreclosure process.

So how can homeowners stop foreclosure with the odds so highly stacked against them? It may not be easy, but it sure won't be impossible. Homeowners really need to begin learning how their mortgage works, how the foreclosure process works, how money works, and how they all fit together. This is one of the main points of this blog: to educate homeowners on how they fit into the overall economy.

Granted, there is little to no formal education about the mortgage and real estate industry given to consumers. But just because no one is forced to learn, doesn't mean that responsible home buyers shouldn't learn how the products they are buying work.

You're not buying a house: you're borrowing a lot of money to be able to live in a house. You don't own it until the bank is paid back what you owe them. Until then, you are at your creditor's mercy if you miss a payment.

Start taking your mortgage seriously right from the start, learn about the products you are purchasing, and avoid foreclosure entirely. If you can't get a good rate on a loan because of your credit, then try buying a smaller house, or put off buying at all for a few months.

And don't assume that a low rate is a good deal. Look for the trap in the ARM. Don't get used to your low, introductory interest rate.

If you're behind on payments now, learn all you can about how to stop foreclosure, find a trustworthy company to assist you, if needed, and fight back against your bank. Once you know how to stop foreclosure and about where you fit into the overall economy, then you can save your home and, hopefully, never fall into another mortgage trap again.

In recent months, there has nearly no good news about the real estate market, with adjustable rate mortgages jumping, foreclosures rising, and home values dropping.

The affect of all this negative news is comparable to watching a train derail, crashing into cars, buildings, trees, and other objects. The difference is that this train is headed straight for us all.

Through reading many of these horrible news articles, one main point seems to be recurring in nearly every story: people are taken advantage of when they trust someone to help them.

They trust their mortgage broker to get them "the best rate," not knowing that the best rate will jump upward in a couple of years, doubling or tripling their mortgage payment. The mortgage broker will take his large commission and the temporarily happy homeowners will forget all about the adjustable payments until the trap has been sprung. In fact, the original mortgage company that wrote this trap loan will have sold the loan long ago to another company that is well aware the loan has a high chance of default once the adjustable rate explodes. The original lender dumps all of these risky loans on investors and servicing companies that will handle the inevitable foreclosure.

People trust their jobs to be stable, or their health to be perpetual, or the world to not throw hardships at them. And every time, their trust is horribly betrayed. Jobs come and go. Health fails. Life happens. If the homeowners are not prepared for this, then they will have to scamble around for the money to pay for basic necessities: food, water, and shelter.

Shelter is the one basic necessity that people let their lack of knowledge about get them into bad situations over and over again. They believe that they "need" a home that is just one step bigger than their coworkers, friends, family, and neighbors own. So they trust mortgage brokers, lenders, and Realtors to give them the best deal. Then in a few years, something happens, and they find themselves in foreclosure, their payment dramatically rising, with no help from the mortgage broker, lender, or real estate agent.

And the broker, lender, and agent know all along that the original loan they are working on is going to be dumped on some other company before it becomes a huge problem for them. Once the loan is sold, then no blame can be given to the original parties to the loan. Most times, the homeowners may not even remember who the original broker, lender, or agent was that helped them purchase their home.

But now they find themselves behind in payments with a mortgage company that may not even have the loan documents. A servicing company collects the payments for a secretive group of investors, who are the real beneficiaries of these loans. And they will benefit regardless of the loan going into foreclosure or not.

Homeowners can win in this situation, though, but it will not be through trusting someone else again and again, and remaining ignorant of how foreclosure works and how it can be stopped. The first step in saving a home should be gaining the knowledge the homeowners should have had long ago. It may be asking for information, or reading some basic introductions to real estate and foreclosure. This can be done in a few hours, and the homeowners will know far more about how to stop foreclosure than they ever did before.

They won't have to fall into another trap, set by a foreclosure help company that turns out to be a foreclosure scam. They may have fallen into the adjustable rate mortgage trap and had it sprung on them when they were least able to refinance the loan. Homeowners who know about the foreclosure process (even on a superficial level) will significantly increase their chances of being able to stop foreclosure.

Stop trusting people until you can reasonably trust yourself, and understand how the mortgage products work that you are purchasing.

You wouldn't buy a car if you knew the gas mileage would decrease from 25 miles per gallon to 3 miles per gallon after two years, right? Then why would you buy a mortgage that will double in price in two or three years?

If there is no other reason to motivate you to do whatever you can to save your home, then consider this. When you lose the home to foreclosure, you will have to move. Furniture, books, appliances, clothes, pots and pans, and everything else inside your home will have to be moved.

Whether you have a place to go or not, this will not change the fact that you will have to transport large, heavy pieces of furniture down stairs, up stairs, and across town. This should be avoided at all costs.

In fact, you can look at your situation as a fork in the road. One path leads to hard work, and the other also leads to hard work. One path leads to a destination where you have stopped foreclosure, the other path to a new apartment that is much too small for your family. And no matter what path you eventually find yourself at the end of, you will have worked long and hard to get there.

The question you have is whether you would rather do the work now to stop foreclosure, or put off the work and move in a matter of weeks or months.

If you choose to stop foreclosure, you will have to put together a repayment plan with your lender, find a new mortgage company to refinance you, work with a local private investor, or seek government assistance so you can stay in your home. This path will be long, with many roadbumps, and will be intersected by wrong ways and dead ends (also known as foreclosure scams ). But at the end of the road, you will be caught up on your mortgage and will not have to worry about your present foreclosure situation ever again.

The second path, though, will allow you to sit back, relax, and do nothing for now. You don't have to lift a finger to stop foreclosure; you just let it go, take advantage of the time the law gives you to stay in the house mortgage-free, and then move a few days before the sheriff evicts you. However, once you realize you need to find somewhere to go after losing the home, the same amount of work will need to be done. You have to find a house or apartment to rent, then rent a truck to load up with your personal items, and transport it all to the new rental.

And all this will take just as much work as the path that leads to keeping your home. Just as an example, your couch will have to be taken apart, cushions removed and stacked up, and all of it will have to be carried downstairs, outside in the rain or snow, lifted into your SUV, and driven to your new apartment. Then, this process happens in reverse: get the couch out of the SUV, carry it through the rain, up the stairs, and into your new apartment, to be put together with the cushions and arranged in any way you want.

As anyone who has carried an enormous couch knows, this can be a long, exhausting exercise in dropped couches and broken watches. The work to move just this couch to your new apartment will have to be multiplied by a factor of several dozen times in terms of time and intensity, depending on how many personal belongings you have.

Is this whole couch-moving example any less work than just saving the home to begin with? Of course not. Moving a couch is a lot of work. Comparatively, moving the couch is more work than what it takes to stop foreclosure. You can stop foreclosure with a few phone calls, to be honest. Add in a few processing forms for whatver lender or investor you're working with, drive to a closing, and get the deal taken care of.

I'd much rather drive to a closing to stop foreclosure, than drive across town with a couch tied to the top of my car. Wouldn't you?

Have you ever wondered why your mortgage has gone up significantly in the past couple of years and for some months now? This has caused many of you to miss payment, face foreclosure, lose your homes, and be evicted.

Obviously, much of the reason for these unfortunate occurrences has to do with the fact that you're in an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM), which means that as rates go up, so do your payments. But this doesn't even begin to give any reasons for rates going up, does it?

In an earlier blog, we discussed how the two major entities, the federal government, and the Federal Reserve System, control how money works in the economy. The government controls the fiscal policy, and the Fed controls the monetary policy. As the article discussed, it is the Fed who determines the rate at which banks borrow money from the government, and this rate affects all of the interest rates in the economy.

So, logically, if the Fed increases its rates, and rates increase throughout the economy, then, eventually, when the time comes, your ARM mortgage payment will increase. When this happens, you may find yourself completely unprepared for the huge increase in your payment and you may begin falling into foreclosure. So, in effect, it's the Federal Reserve Bank's fault you have to stop foreclosure, right? Well, not entirely.

You see, the Fed sometimes has to increase the rates, in order to give people who hold dollars a reason to keep their dollars. If the interest rate on dollars is higher, than the value of the dollar remains high, which means the price of goods and services remains low. It is a very bad sign if the dollar loses value, because this means that you will need more and more dollars to buy the same amount of goods. When this happens, prices rise: gas, heating, food, electronics, everything.

So the Fed had been raising rates for quite some time, before recently leveling off. Has this affected the value of the dollar, keeping prices low and dollar values high?

Unfortunately, in another bad sign for homeowners facing foreclosure, the value of American money has fallen quite noticeably. In fact, your money may be worth more when its recycled into something besides money. Yes, this means that you could, potentially, take your pennies and nickels, melt them down, and sell the metal for more than what the pennies and nickels were worth.

How is this possible, though?

Very simply, the value of the metal in a penny is now worth $0.012, or 1.12 cents. As a penny, you can only trade it for goods worth 1 cent. But as a metal, you can trade the metal the penny is made out of for goods worth a little more than one cent. Nickels are acting likewise: the metal in a five-cent nickel is now worth 6.99 cents.

Therefore, the materials your money is made out of is worth more than the world's faith in the American dollar. Scary, huh? Further declines in the value may make our currency worth even less, or, scariest of all, nearly worthless.

This may explain why some of you are seeing your mortgage payments increase by hundreds of dollars per month. Put very simply: your money isn't worth enough to the economy anymore. In order to function in society as a homeowner, you have to give more and more dollars, since your money is worth less and less.

And if you're thinking of getting some extra cash by melting down some of your loose change, you may want to reconsider that option very quickly. New rules released last Thursday state that you may face thousands of dollars of fines or even jail time, if you melt down your currency.

Think you've found a loophole by taking the money to Canada or Mexico to melt it? Think again. As USA Today states, it is "illegal to export the coins for melting. Travelers may legally carry up to $5 in 1- and 5-cent coins out of the USA or ship $100 of the coins abroad 'for legitimate coinage and numismatic purposes'."

So where are homeowners left? Well, to sum up, you will have a very tough time keeping your mortgage payment low, due to the higher rates. Also, you will have a harder time making your payment, as your money is worth less. You won't be able to capitalize on the metal in the currency, since it is illegal to melt it down. And you can't ship the money out of the country to be melted down, since that is illegal.

This is one of the main reasons you need to examine every option to stop foreclosure, including doing it yourself, and enlisting the help of third parties who are trustworthy. As the value of money keeps decreasing, you'll have to use it more wisely, and learn to do more on your own to keep your home. If you're already in foreclosure, you have to stop foreclosure as soon as possible. Every day, your lender adds more fees and interest and charges to the account, requiring you to pay more and more money to them to save your home. If your money is worth less (or worthless), then you will be guaranteed to lose your home if you do not act in time and act wisely.

You need to know your options. You need options to save your home fast. You can't wait anymore, since you don't know if today is the last chance you'll ever have to keep your home.

Just in time for the holidays, we have updated a significant feature in the ForeclosureFish.com members area. How many times have foreclosure victims called their lender, only to be put on hold for 10 minutes, transferred to another department, placed on hold for even longer, transferred again, and then disconnected or transferred to voicemail before actually talking to anyone?

All that is just a distant memory for our members, though, as we have completed a database of nearly one thousand contact phone numbers and fax numbers for mortgage companies nationwide. You'll never again have to spend hours on hold, futilely attempting to contact the correct person.

As an extra feature, there are contact numbers for dozens of foreclosure attorneys. These are the attorneys who are suing you and representing the lenders who are trying to take back your home.

This database can be an invaluable resource to everyone who is trying to stop foreclosure. Both homeowners, investors, and mortgage brokers will be able to access the information, making the task of saving homes much quicker and efficient.

Homeowners will be able to locate the correct phone numbers in order to call their lender, and won't spend hours being shuffled from one voicemail to the next, never receiving a call back.

Private investors will be able to present their short sale offers or purchase contracts to the correct departments. The lender won't be able to use the excuse of never receiving the necessary information, especially if the documents are sent to numerous fax numbers for the company.

Mortgage lenders specializing in foreclosure loans will be able to receive information from the mortgage company in a matter of days -- not weeks, like some mortgage companies offer. These extra days and hours can make the difference between closing a loan and running out of time.

Become a ForeclosureFish.com member, and never get the run-around from your lender again. Don't lose your house because they won't take your calls. Keep your lender accountable, stop foreclosure, and save your home.

There are a few major and minor announcements before the weekend. We're excited to be implementing some new changes, as well as giving away a new, old foreclosure relief book.

We are planning some new updates to the website over the weekend, which will vastly increase the amount of information available to homeowners and others in the foreclosure industry. Check for new pages, better explanations, and updated information on the current pages.

Also... the big announcement: to all of our clients, we will be giving away a free foreclosure relief booklet. Because of the success of the original book, we have decided to give it away for free to everyone who submits their email to us, either through the info@foreclosurefish.com account, or by using the submission form on our site.

We hope everyone has a great weekend, and we look forward to adding more valuable content and services to all of our visitors.

Today, we got a call from a former client of a foreclosure scam. Hopefully, sharing this story will help anyone reading this blog realize the enormity of the criminal activity that goes on in the foreclosure relief industry. Only by being aware and knowledgeable can you hope to avoid all of the unscrupulous individuals and companies that are only trying to harm you.

Again, we recommend that you should do all you can to stop foreclosure on your own, and never use a third party to get involved unless you have already tried saving your home yourself. This story should be an example of why we recommend this.

The victim of the scam was facing the possibility of sheriff sale in early March, 2006. He contacted a number of possible foreclosure assistance companies and was finally "sold" by one of them which was run by a certain woman. To begin the process, he was required by the scammer to send $2,000, as a "retainer" for future services, including loss mitigation and locating a lender. The victim sent $2,000, by certified funds.

After being called and given daily updates on the status of his file, the victim believed that the scammer was working hard for him. The scammer said she was contacting the bank, trying to stop foreclosure for the client, and attempting to work out an affordable repayment plan. The client believed all of this and trusted the scammer to do all of the work for him, even though he kept receiving phone calls and letters from his lender and their attorneys, and the property seemed to be slipping further into foreclosure.

Once the property reached the end of the line and was going to sheriff sale, the scammer had the nerve to contact her victim and try to wring more money out of him. Horribly, she convinced the victim to send her another $7,000, via wire transfer. According to her, she was going to take the $7,000, fly to the corporate office of the client's bank, hand them the $7,000, and establish a repayment plan on the spot.

If this sounds utterly incredible, it should. The client ended up sending the scammer a grand total of $9,000, over a period of a few months. And what did he get out of his $9,000, investment?

If you guessed less than nothing, you would be correct. The sheriff sale went through. The property was sold back to the lender. The client was publicy humiliated by being physically evicted from the property in front of all of his neighbors. The $9,000? It has another story. In fact, a couple of stories.

Story I. When the client finished wiring the second payment of $7,000, and the payment plan was not established, the victim reasonably asked what had happened to his money. The scammer first told him that the employee who had been entrusted with depositing the $7,000, had never returned from the bank and had walked off with all of the money.

The only problem with this story is that a wire transfer does not require a physical deposit of the funds. It was transferred directly into the scammer's bank account. This story didn't last long.

Story II. The scammer told her victim that the money had been stolen from her office, as a result of a burglary. This also proved to be false, as the scammer could not keep her facts straight, and, most blatantly of all, no police report was filed.

After spewing out lies and giving her client the run-around, the scammer finally stopped communicating at all. The client would call and not be spoken to, have his phone calls go straight to voicemail, and would not be called back. The last attempt was for the victim to send a letter via Certified Mail, stating all of the facts of the case and that he was demanding his money be returned to him. He even offered to accept partial payments of the $9,000, paid over a number of months.

This letter was returned to the client unopened. The scammer never even bothered to pick up the letter from the post office and refused to sign for its receipt.

And what happened to the $9,000? Where has it gone? What has it been spent on? These might be impossible questions to answer... except for one fact: on the scammer's voicemail, she states that she will be out of town in Las Vegas for the holidays.

How many expensive meals can be bought in Las Vegas for $9,000? How many hands of blackjack? How many Cirque du Soleil shows?

How many times will the scammer be able to insert another quarter into a slot machine, all because she tricked someone into sending her $9,000? Thirty-six thousand times. She will have thirty-six thousand chances to win the jackpot in Las Vegas. And if she loses all thirty-six thousand times, she can just continue scamming desperate homeowners whose trust she gains.

Don't let your holidays be ruined by some scammer who takes your money, lies to you until the sheriff evicts you from your home in front of your neighbors, and has a grand old time in Las Vegas spending your money, while you're trying to find some way to make the holiday season cheerful again.

Just take responsibility, learn how to stop foreclosure yourself or work with a third party without being screwed, and give yourself the gift of continued homeownership this Christmas season. No one else will be able to give you that gift, and some people, as sad as it is, will even try to take away the gift.

If you're in foreclosure and you have a question, please feel free to submit it. We enjoy providing free information relating to helping homeowners save their homes and stop foreclosure. No question should be considered too irrelevant and we will attempt to be as fair and balanced as possible in our answers.

We are contemplating adding a FAQ for general questions, but the main argument against this type of project is very strong. Namely, every foreclosure situation is different and requires evaluation and consideration. There really are no simple, broad answers to stop foreclosure in general. Your situation is different from every other foreclosure victim and requires special attention.

The other main reason we do not wish to provide a FAQ is that it will take away valuable resources that can be directed to answering specific questions relating to foreclosure. As a case in point of the variety of foreclosure situations and our responses to questions, please see here.

However, we are planning on adding new information to our site in the near future. The goal of all of the information on our site is to help homeowners take responsibility for their mortgages and learn how to stop foreclosure without being taken advantage of by unscrupulous companies.

Thank you for taking the time to read our site and our blog, and we contine, as always, to look forward to helping all homeowners learn more about their mortgage, property, and the general economic conditions that contribute to situations that lead to foreclosure. We believe that even a small knowledge of all of these topics give homeowners the power to stop foreclosure successfully.

This post is focused on an arcane bit of knowledge that illustrates how money works in the economy. It does not directly relate to foreclosure or real estate, but the policies that are used to control money directly influence the behavior of the real estate market, including the increase or decrease in home values. Having a basic knowledge of how money is supplied to the economy can help homeowners understand how economic-related hardships become more probably at certain times, and how best to stop foreclosure in any economic cycle.

The mechanisms of money are controlled by two parties: the federal government and the Federal Reserve System. The government controls the supply of money through a process called "fiscal policy." The Federal Reserve Bank controls the supply of money through a process called "monetary poclicy." We will briefly discuss each of these policies, how they are enacted, and the eventual repercussions within the economy.

Fiscal policy is controlled by the federal government through the tax policy and government spending.

Through the use of taxes, the government can indirectly increase or decrease the supply of money that consumers and businesses have access to. When the government lowers taxes, everyone has more money to spend on other items, such as new homes, personal goods, or business equipment. If taxes are raised, the government collects more money from everyone, thereby decreasing the amount of money in the economy. This causes a general increase in prices due to the higher demand for fewer dollars.

In reality, this can be related to quite easily. If you receive a large tax refund every year, then you have more money to spend on items like TVs, computers, vacations, and food. If millions of people have extra money to spend on these items, then prices will increase to meet the rising demand. A small tax refund, or having to send the government a check due to higher taxes will cause you to spend less money on bills or consumer items. Prices will fall due to fewer people being able to afford items such as iPods or home additions.

In terms of the other method of influencing the economy, the amount of money the government spends can increase or decrease the supply of money in the economy. If the government increases federal spending to programs, then more money enters the economy. Alternately, if the government decreases its spending on federal programs, then less government money enters the economy.

In practice, this means that if the government spends extra on the federal forest fighting program, for instance, then more employees are hired and more firefighting equipment is purchased, which puts extra money into the economy. And if programs are cut or scaled back, employees are laid off and contracts are canceled for equipment, thereby decreasing the amount of money in the economy.

These are general explanations of the two main ways the government can influence prices of goods in the economy: through taxes and government spending. The effects of this fiscal policy techniques are felt indirectly by the economy as a whole and do not have the same level of impact as the monetary policy practiced by the Federal Reserve Bank.

The Federal Reserve Bank is the central bank of the US and sets the interest rates at which banks can borrow money from the federal government. The Fed, as it is commonly called, can control the supply of money in the economy directly by a number of different tactics.

The first way involves the Fed purchasing or selling government securities, such as Treasury Bills. If the Fed buys large numbers of these, then they exchange money for the securities, and more money is put into the economy when investors exchange their Treasury Bills for money. When the Fed sells these securities, then they are exchanging money from investors for the promise of money in the future, and this decreases the amount of money in the economy. Investors trade their dollars for Treasury Bills, and the Fed holds onto the dollars, preventing them from going back into the economy to be used for other purposes.

The Fed also controls the amount of money that banks have to deposit with the Federal Reserve Bank. When banks have to deposit a large amount with the Fed, then this money can not be used for additional loans for consumers or businesses. This can raise interest rates, because more parties are competing for less money. If the Fed lowers the deposit requirement (known as the reserve requirement), then banks can use more of their money to extend credit to customers, and this money finds its way into the economy. Interest rates for loans and mortgages will go down, as there is more supply of money to be loaned out.

A final way that the Federal Reserve can control money is by directly raising or lowering the interest rate at which banks borrow money from the Fed. When banks have short-term problems paying extending credit or paying on demand deposits (such as checking accounts), they can borrow money from the Federal Reserve directly to meet their needs. If the Fed raises interest rates, then banks are less willing to borrow money and do not lend as much money, or lend money at higher rates. As the Fed lowers its rates, then banks can also lower their rates or extend extra credit, as their cost of borrowing decreases.

The Fed directly influences the economy by controlling the total supply of money by creating or destroying money and determining the rate at which consumers can borrow money.

Homeowners are the group most directly affected by these changes in the money supply. If home values decrease as a result of higher interest rates, or a recession in the economy, then homeowners in foreclosure may find that they owe more on their homes than the current value. They will have a hard time selling their homes to stop foreclosure, and may not be able to refinance at all.

Thankfully, the economy operates in cycles of increasing and decreasing values, with a general optimistic trend. This means that prices, even if they decrease, can generally be expected to increase to their original price in the near future and will almost always increase beyond their original price in the long term. Of course, this is only small consolation for foreclosure victims who would benefit from higher home values in the short term.

Hopefully, this post explains clearly how the supply and cost of money in the economy, with a focus on home values, is affected by changes in governmental policy and operational policy of the Federal Reserve System. It is meant to give homeowners a bit of information regarding the broader economic context of their fight to stop foreclosure. It is not meant to provide an exhaustive explanation of how our economy works, but merely to be a meaningful introduction.

Knowing that the economy operates in cycles that are affected by these two entities can help homeowners realize that a foreclosure season in the economy is just like any other season: it comes periodically, may have extreme conditions, but will eventually pass into a different phase leaving only memories.

This weekend, we received couple of posts from loss mitigation specialists in the foreclosure industry. As they feel they raised some questions about loss mitigation, we would like to answer their concerns.

We are not in the habit of taking down blog entries or comments and do not want to begin that habit with our new blog, but we feel an exception had to be made in this case, as these posts contained negative comments about the blog and made some inaccurate assumptions regarding the services provided by ForeclosureFish. We will not attempt to censor their posts or remove them completely, but will respond to them as professionally as we are able.

We also wish to state that we do not believe that every loss mitigation company is in the business of stealing money from their clients. There are always good companies and bad companies, as well as good people and bad people. This applies to all industries and should be self-evident. However, in our experience in dealing with homeowner complaints about a large number of loss mitigation companies, as well as the various foreclosure news stories that appear on a daily basis about foreclosure scams offering pointless mitigation services, we feel it necessary to inform homeowners of the proportionately high chance that they may be taken advantage of by these companies.

We will quote the comments from these posters and then respond to them below.

“You are writing about services you do not have full knowledge of.” [Donna Atwater]
-Of course, we are always adding more to our knowledge of foreclosure situations and how best to assist homeowners stop foreclosure. Anyone who claims to have “full knowledge” of the foreclosure industry is simply lying, and we make no claim to know everything about foreclosure. However, we believe our mission and track record speak for themselves and we are licensed real estate brokers and bank managers, and have industry experience in the areas of financial planning, accounting, investing, and loss mitigation (which we offer as a free service and teach homeowners to do themselves).

“I am a loss mitigation consultant and have helped many homeowners get payment plans, loan modifications, hardships, etc… when they were previously unsuccessful with their lender.” [Donna Atwater]
-That is fine to hear that you have chosen to assist homeowners, and every new person who legitimately helps homeowners stop foreclosure is a welcome addition to the industry. Hopefully, you do not take up front fees from clients and then provide them with information they already know or recommend bankruptcy as an option (two common complaints about loss mitigation companies). Also, you do not state what you offer when homeowners are unable to qualify for the one specific service you offer. Bankruptcy? Nothing? It would be unfortunate if a homeowner did not save their home through loss mitigation and then found out they did not have enough time to pursue another option.
-You help homeowners get these plans, but are any of them beneficial to the homeowner? How many end up with hardship program payments more than their current payment? How many end up failing the repayment plan in their first few months of initiating it?
-If we are offering our qualifications to help homeowners in foreclosure, then it should be known that the professionals at ForeclosureFish have extensive experience in the foreclosure industry, real estate and mortgage markets, and the financial industry as a whole. We have experience in personal financial planning, loss mitigation (which we offer for free), accounting, investment planning, managing branches of nationwide banks, and real estate brokerage. We use all of this experience to help homeowners stop foreclosure by whatever means are most conducive to the specific situation. Unlike most loss mitigation companies, we do not focus on only one area of foreclosure solutions.

“Most of the homeowners that come to me have already exhausted all their options, including trying to refinance. When a homeowner is behind on their current mortgage most lenders, with decent terms, won’t touch them.” [Donna Atwater]
-What happens to the other homeowners that come to you who have not exhausted all other options? In our experience with loss mitigation companies, the company will charge the homeowner for mitigation services, whether they qualify for it or not and regardless of whether they qualify for any other option. The loss mitigation company is selling a product, not helping homeowners save their homes from foreclosure. Most of them are comparable to car salesmen who try to fix consumers’ transportation needs by selling them a car, rather than helping the client examine other options like walking or mass transit, and leaving the final decision up to the purchaser.
-We are aware that the vast majority of lenders will not touch a borrower who has sub-500 credit scores and is actively in foreclosure. That is why we work with the handful of lenders who will consider doing these loans and take a look at the client’s whole financial picture. That is also why we consider refinancing only one option to examine, along with free mitigation services, selling the property, and locating private sources of funding.

“8% is hardly a deal in itself.” [Donna Atwater]
-An 8% mortgage to refinance a home out of foreclosure is a pretty good deal and is comparable to what the borrower could obtain with fair credit and no missed mortgage payments. It is unfortunate, but true, that a 1.25% interest rate is unlikely for a borrower who has not paid their mortgage for months. However, it should be stated again that refinancing is only one of several options that we examine to stop foreclosure.

“ARM loans and these crazy no doc loans is what started the foreclosure epidemic to begin with.” [Donna Atwater]
-This is misleading and negligent, as vast numbers of borrowers have obtained ARM and no-doc loans and have never missed a mortgage payment. As we have stated over and over again, the homeowner needs to begin taking responsibility for their home and their mortgage. While foreclosure is unfortunate and horrible, it is up to the foreclosure victim to research the options to stop foreclosure and then decide on a plan of action. Blaming foreclosure on market conditions or mortgage brokers may be fun and easy, but it will not help solve the immediate problem of helping a homeowner stop foreclosure right now.

“I would just like to say that I think you do an excellent job at fooling the public by using the most commonly used terms in the business such as ‘mitigation specialist’ and tell everyone that those type of people are con artists, while at the same time you change what you call yourself and then peddle the exact same service to the clients you just conned.” [Jennifer Lauria]
-Unfortunately, this is where the negative comments become more personal and entirely unsubstantiated.
-In fact, we provide mitigation services at no charge to any of our clients, so peddling is not an applicable term. Nor is it reasonable to assume that ForeclosureFish cons any client in regards to mitigation services, as we provide them for free. However, we recommend homeowners negotiate with their lenders themselves as an option to stop foreclosure. We don’t think that fooling people into helping themselves could ever be considered fooling them, but rather, fooling them into believing they can qualify for a magical repayment plan that lowers their payments and eliminates their arrears, as many loss mitigation companies do, is fooling the homeowners into believing in an option that is quite foolish for anyone to believe.

“I would like to add that the average person should not be fooled by the play on words that you use to hoodwink unsuspecting homeowners, and that your illeducation in this business is axiomatic.” [Jennifer Lauria]
-If giving away free information and providing mitigation services at no charge is considered “hoodwinking,” then it is inconceivable what term should be used for people who charge homeowners in hardship situations for negotiating with their bank. Perhaps the word economic terrorism fits individuals who practice these acts.

“How does it feel to have spent all that money on a higher education just to turn around and use it like a common crook?” [Jennifer Lauria]
-We are unsure if you are considering us as highly educated professionals with a “higher education” or if you think of us as uneducated crooks with an “illeducation in this business.” It seems your comments are meant to serve your ulterior motive of disparaging the company by simultaneously calling us highly educated criminals and common uneducated criminals. Maintaining a consistent position would only be expected of a person who believes in their position, instead of just applying clichéd labels to a company. In fact, it is impossible to argue with your inconsistent statements, as we are unsure what charge we are responding to.
-However, it feels great to have learned about the foreclosure industry and then to share with homeowners free foreclosure information and perform free services for them to save their homes. It is more likely that common crooks would use their knowledge to charge for the performance of services that, if a homeowner was aware of them, could be done without the mediation of a third party.

“The question is, if you are truly looking out for the homeowner, will you allow this truth to show on your site so they can get REAL help?” [Donna Atwater]
-We hope that anyone in foreclosure who reads our website does enough research on their own to determine what the truth is about their situation and how best they can stop foreclosure, whether through paying for loss mitigation, receiving it for free, or evaluating other options, as well. Again, not every loss mitigation company is bad or good. In fact, even employees in the same company may be considered better or worse than other employees. It is ultimately up to the consumer to decide which company and individual to trust.

We are unsure why these two posters, Jennifer and Donna (who registered for accounts within 1 minute of each other, coincidentally), resorted to unsubstantiated claims and negative comments, instead of offering a valid point of view on their opinion of loss mitigation. Instead of stating their differing positions on the subject and opening a dialogue, they decided to make false statements, and lead homeowners into believing that ForeclosureFish performs the same services as their company. However, if you would like to view their site, after knowing the type of foreclosure help individuals they are, please see here. If you would like to examine their loss mitigation services, please feel free. If you would like to use free loss mitigation services, or do it on your own, please contact us.

If it was not clear from anywhere on the website, or in this post or other blog posts, we would like to state all of the following again:

-ForeclosureFish does not charge for loss mitigation services-

-ForeclosureFish believes that homeowners are nearly always better off doing loss mitigation themselves and paying their mortgage company with the money they would have paid to the loss mitigation company-

-ForeclosureFish helps homeowners stop foreclosure by examining all of the options, instead of selling one particular option-

-ForeclosureFish does not believe that all loss mitigation companies are criminal; however, the past experiences of our clients and recent foreclosure news stories lead us to believe that homeowners need a firm warning against those loss mitigation companies that are unscrupulous-

It is unfortunate that foreclosure season in the US housing market has reduced some people to baseless attacks on other companies that attempt to help homeowners stop foreclosure.

Hello Everyone,

No substantial post today (Friday), but have a great weekend.

If you need immediate assistance, please browse our website for free solutions, or consider purchasing our foreclosure e-book, Theft of the American Home.

Also, for those who need assistance to stop foreclosure, please fill out our contact form and one of our foreclosure experts will contact you as soon as possible.

With foreclosure season in full swing for the economy, we hope we can provide all of our clients with the level of service they expect.

Recently, while browsing through the foreclosure news on Google, it is apparent that there are many more foreclosure scams now that the housing market has slowed. Nearly half of the most recent news stories relating to foreclosure are focused on helping homeowners avoid these scams. It is unfortunate that so, so many people need to be informed over and over again not to make some of the most simple mistakes regarding their most important asset: their homes.

Some of the more simple scams involve companies offering homeowners "fast cash" or "equity funding." In reality, though, the paperwork for these dubious loans involves the foreclosure victims signing the deed to their homes over to the foreclosure scam company for a nominal price or "loan." This is probably the lowest form of criminal, taking advantage of people's ignorance and overwhelming desire to stop foreclosure any way possible. Obviously, these people belong in jail.

There are also a rising number of "foreclosure rescue services" coming under the spotlight of national news agencies. These criminals also give their victims paperwork that is used to trick them into giving up their rights to the home. The scammer can then record the new deed, showing them as the owner of the property, and evict the former owners, who are still in foreclosure. Next, the scammer rents out the property until the home goes all the way through foreclosure, collecting rental income and being directly responsible for the eviction of not just one, but two families during the course of the foreclosure. Even more than the group of scammers mentioned above, these people need to pay for their criminal acts against innocent homeowners.

The sheer volume of stories like these is a sad commentary on the current state of financial education regarding owning a home. If you find yourself facing foreclosure or becoming late in payments, your best defense should be to gain as much knowledge about foreclosure as you can. Remaining ignorant of the way foreclosure works is simply negligent.

In other words, you can not reasonably expect to stop foreclosure unless you understand a reasonable amount of information about the foreclosure process. If you remain in the dark, you will find yourself the unwilling prey of a foreclosure scam, possibly being tricked into sending thousands of dollars for foreclosure help, or even signing away your home and finding yourself on the streets in a matter of days.

Don't become one of the many victims of these and other foreclosure scams. Read what you are signing, examine your options, never sign over the deed to your house, and make sure the deal you are getting to stop foreclosure is in your best interests.

For homeowners facing foreclosure, one of the most difficult steps towards fixing their situation is simply taking responsibility. Not taking responsibility for what has happened to them or is happening, but taking responsibility for beginning action to fix the situation.

The majority of foreclosure victims place the responsibility for their current situation on any number of outside influences. These may include loss of job, medical problems, family issues, divorce and other reasons. While not discounting the impact of these occurrences, there is no one - no one - who will help the homeowner save their home if they are not willing to become an active member in resolving the situation.

The past, including all of the events leading up to foreclosure, while traumatizing and potentially depressing, will not serve to save even one single home from foreclosure. The first requirement in any plan to stop foreclosure is for the victim of foreclosure to take a stand and decide to examine options to save the home. Without this decision being made, nothing will happen to stop foreclosure.

Furthermore, the responsibility to save the home will never, under no circumstances, be transferred from any homeowner to any third party. The main responsibility will always remain with the owner of the property.

While this may not sound entirely optimistic, by accepting responsibility, the homeowner regains all of their power to prevent the lender from taking the property. The homeowner is free to do as much research as time allows and to examine every option to stop the foreclosure process.

No company or individual who offers any type of foreclosure help to the homeowner should ever be trusted to save the home, and should not be considered the point of contact and mediation between the homeowner and the lender. Trusting a third party, who has no ownership interest in the property, is singularly the most effective way to lose the home.

Make the right decision. Take responsibility for fixing the problem, do the necessary research, and effectively stop foreclosure.

We announced earlier in this blog that were were planning a new series of articles on specific foreclosure scam companies. After doing extensive research and brainstorming, we have made a significant change in our plans.

Instead of a series of articles, we have decided to write a new, larger special report on general foreclosure scams, and the specific companies that commit these crimes.

This is, undoubtedly, a larger project than we originally anticipated it being, but we believe that a detailed analysis of specific foreclosure scams is well worth the time. It is important for homeowners to know, not only the general theories behind how foreclosure scams work, but how they have been committed over time. Scammers have changed and adapted their techniques to appear as legal as possible, exploiting loopholes in the system, or outright committing criminal acts regardless of the consequences.

Much of the research on some of these companies has been completed to date, and now needs to be organized and put together in a coherent manner. We plan on making the report available early in the new year, just in time for (hopefully) the end of foreclosure season in the U.S. housing market.

If you have any suggestions on the new report, please let us know by leaving a comment on the blog, or emailing us. For additional immediate information on foreclosure scams, please see the special report included in our foreclosure e-book, Theft of the American Home.

Even though this is a short post today, the message is more important than any other one on our website.

Don't Wait!

Don't wait to stop foreclosure. Don't wait to contact someone for help. Don't wait to call your lender.

Every day after you've missed your first payment, your lender keeps moving along on their process to take your home. They may delay a few things here and there along the way, give you a second, third, or fourth chance to get caught up or stop foreclosure, but every day they will be moving slowly towards evicting you from your home.

It's not that they want to evict you, necessarily, but they know that many people who miss payments end up losing their homes. Just because you are waiting, does not mean they will. The lender will not wait to try to take your home back. Every single day counts.

Can you say the same for yourself? Have you planned to get back on your feet and taken a step on that plan, no matter how small, each and every day? If not, your lender is moving further and further ahead of you towards taking your home. And once they get so far that they can sell your property out from under you, take the proceeds to pay off their outrageous fees, and kick you out of your house, then it will be nearly impossible to stop foreclosure.

So, don't wait to get help. Don't think that things will "get better." We're not saying things won't get better, because things will get better eventually, but Do Not rely on an uncertain future to help you stop foreclosure. It's more important to contact someone for help or work with your lender, than to wait and hope. Planning your way out of foreclosure can help things get better much quicker, as well.

Take the time to find out your options and plan your next steps. The longer you wait, the more difficult it will be for anyone, even yourselves, to help stop foreclosure.

Don't wait: save your home as soon as you can.

A recent report by CNBC uncovers disturbing facts about the erosion of privacy in America.

For many victims of foreclosure, keeping the fact that they are behind in payments a secret is one of their main concerns. However, a special report by TV news station CNBC examines the relatively new industry of private data mining, including the gathering of such personal financial information as mortgage payment history, use of credit, and banking information.

This results in a loss of privacy for nearly all citizens, where billions of transactions are gathered on a daily basis. From Event Data Recorders in car air bag systems, which collect data on driving patterns just before accidents, to GPS technology, which can track rental car activity, more is being done every day to take away peoples' sense of privacy. Even laser printers made by such names as Xerox, Dell, HP, and Canon embed a secret code on each page they print, which can tell the FBI and other regulatory agencies the serial number of the printer, and the date and time a page is printed. The same goes for digital camera photos and even CD burners, which print the serial number of the burner on every CD that is created; this means that a pirated CD can almost certainly be tracked to the exact computer that it was copied from.

Another innocuous erosion of privacy is in the area of cell phone usage. A program called ULocate can track individual cell phones through GPS devices in the phones themselves, and cell phone companies are able to track their customers even without GPS. As long as a cell phone is turned on, the provider can locate the device because the phone communicates with the towers to receive information, such as signal strength and incoming and outgoing calls.

In terms of the detailed financial and personal habits of U.S. citizens, numerous private companies have begun collecting and compiling billions of records. ChoicePoint maintains a database on nearly every single person, including nearly 17 billion records of every aspect of their lives. They sell this information to other companies, who may use it for background checks, direct marketing, or for use in criminal investigations.

And although hundreds of companies have had millions of data records stolen, or have simply lost them, government agencies are relying more and more upon the records these data miners store. The agencies can more easily locate property ownership information, social security numbers, employment records, driving records, and other personal information.

Two more data miners similar to ChoicePoint are Verfications, Inc., and Acxiom. Acxiom collects nearly 3 billion records every day of transactions that people engage in, from public records to private transactions at banks, telecom companies, and retailers, among others. This data collection is supposedly to help businesses analyze customers and their behavior, by looking at their income, number of children, and personal interests.

Search engines are also major data collectors, although they are not primarily in the business of selling this information. A search of Google can locate detailed personal information from millions of websites; information that was not originally intended to be shared with the general public. This may include actual credit reports, phone bills, and property information. Also, Google stores records of every single search that is made in their search engine and these searches can be tracked to the individual searcher. These searches are also admissible as evidence in criminal trials. There are over 200 million searches on Google every day that are stored forever by Google.

The behavior of America Online subscribers can also be used by courts as evidence. AoL works with law enforcement agencies to the point of testifying against their paying subscribers. The company keeps records of emails and can identify the user by their IP address.

There is also a growing problem of theft of personal information by the use of pretexting. This technique involves calling a company and pretending to be the client whose information is the target, and doing whatever possible to get private information. In particular, this has become an issue with cell phone records being stolen. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that pretexting, in most instances, is not illegal.

Biometrics, another topic the report details, involves using biological properties to identify people, such as finger prints, eye retina scans, or facial recognition software. These techniques are being used in nearly every aspect of American life, from border patrol to the hiring of new teachers, and in airports, police stations, and even the State Department.

Possibly the worst aspect of this mass collection of data is that the practice has eroded the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees citizens protection from illegal government search and seizure. Because personal data is collected by third party corporations, the data collected can be bought by government agencies and their ability to review personal information otherwise unobtainable is not protected. Third parties can release any and all information to government law enforcement agencies.

A final issue is that of RFID chips, implantable computer chips that store personal information that is tied to the chip, including names, social security numbers, employment information, or other data. These chips can be implanted in humans just below the skin and can be read from a distance. While supposedly secure, there is no guarantee that criminals will not one day be able to hack into an implanted chip and steal the personal information embedded onto it.

In fact, the FDA has already approved an implantable RFID chip, made by the company VeriChip. The head of the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, at the time of approval of the chip was Tommy Thompson, who now sits on the board of VeriChip, and who is now contemplating a bid for president in 2008.

All of this makes the situation of being in foreclosure even more difficult to endure. Hundreds of data collection companies and their clients have access to detailed information about every transaction a homeowner makes, from placing a call to their lender's loss mitigation department, to bouncing a check for the mortgage payment. With public and private information being marketed to both unscrupulous investors and other foreclosure scams, it becomes nearly impossible for a foreclosure victim to pick the right course to stop foreclosure.

And the longer the foreclosure situation exists, the more detailed credit and financial information will be entered into the databases. High-interest credit card offers may dramatically increase, or predatory payday loan offers may arrive in the mail, all seeming to give the homeowner just one more chance to stop foreclosure and avoid losing their homes, even for one more month. However, with so many third parties already possibly aware of the foreclosure situation, it is in the best interest of the foreclosure victim to do enough research on legitimate ways to save their homes. The erosion of privacy may make the process to stop foreclosure more difficult, but every homeowner must make the effort to know as much about the companies they are dealing with as these companies know about the homeowner. Only in this way can the person in danger of losing their home successfully stop foreclosure and protect even more of their private information from entering into the hands of data miners, who will sell that information to companies intent on taking advantage of homeowners in foreclosure.