From Stateline.org:

These so-called mortgage-rescue companies promise that for fees of about $1,000 to $2,500, they can negotiate loans with providers to get owners lower monthly payments. Or they offer deals that suggest homeowners temporarily deed their homes to the company or a third party, theoretically to allow the homeowners time to get back on their feet financially.
But in some cases, these “solutions” have turned out to be far worse than the problem.

At a time when the subprime mortgage crisis has caused a record number of homeowners to enter foreclosure, scam artists have made a bustling industry of preying on people’s desperation to save their homes.
States are leading the effort to help homeowners avoid these scams; at least 18 states have laws banning foreclosure-rescue scams by limiting some of practices that lead to them, and six of them — Idaho, Maine, Nebraska, Oregon, Virginia and Washington — enacted laws just this year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. A similar bill is now on the desk of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R).

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