Banking Foreclosure Fraud Accelerates In 2010

The daily headlines about banking foreclosures are shocking ...

• Most foreclosures in U.S. history in Q3 2010, 102,000 just last month
• 816,000 foreclosures January-September with 1.2 million projected for 2010
• Banks filing false affidavits, defrauding foreclosure victims
• 10% of home owners are delinquent on payments
• Bank of America stops foreclosure process nationwide
• 50 states launch joint investigation of possible bank foreclosure fraud

At the heart of what network TV news calls the “foreclosure crisis” and advocates of banking victims call foreclosure fraud, are people called “robo-signers”. (Most TV networks receive substantial advertising from banks). Robo-signers are people, often with minimal education or experience, whose job it is to sign foreclosure documents all day long on behalf of banks. 

Recent testimony quoted a Wells Fargo robo-signer as saying she signs the many documents for 300 to 500 foreclosures per day, making it impossible to check the facts that she swears are accurate by signing the documents. Some robo-signers sign documents for 10,000 foreclosures per month. Rarely in history has it been possible for one person to destroy 10,000 families per month. When considered on a per person basis, this pace of destruction is in line with wartime bombing raids on residential areas. Robo-signers are to U.S. housing what bombardiers were to Dresden in WWII. 

(One must wonder how each robo-signer rationalizes their actions. When their spouse and children ask “how did work go today”, do you think robo-signers proudly tell their loved ones with a big smile, “I destroyed 500 families today!”)

At issue is how banks require their workers to skip their legal responsibility to verify facts on the foreclosure documents they are signing. As a result, false affidavits are made, foreclosure papers with wrong names and other mistakes that void the document are signed, and documents are “verified” that don’t exist. 

Robo-signing first came to light three years ago when a New York judge noticed foreclosure documents of multiple banks that were signed by the same person at the same address, but with executive-level job titles at 5 different banks. That exposure changed nothing, unfortunately. Three years later, title companies precipitated the “crisis” by increasingly refusing to ensure mortgages, as the magnitude of banking fraud became clear. A logical reaction. The person who buys a fraudulent bank foreclosure might have to give the property back to its owner, and that home owner risk is insured by the title company. 

This story needs the human element. Have you been foreclosed upon unjustly? Do you know someone who has lost their home to fraudulent banking practices? Has anyone had their life destroyed by a bank’s rush to foreclose? Share your story here. 

Categorization: foreclosure fraud, predatory banking, robo-signers, robosigner, home foreclosure 

Errors in Bank’s Favor

This is the first post in this blog. Let’s begin with something that’s universal, obvious and disturbing.

Have you ever noticed how mistakes always work to benefit the bank and not the customer? And have you noticed just how many mistakes occur? 

Chase Bank has been chasing me for a payment. Given the magnitude of their threat, I immediately called them and gave them payment by phone. I read the number directly off of the check, and repeated it. I was careful because I couldn’t afford a mistake. A week later, they claimed the account number given was wrong. Banks, of course, make more money from mistakes like this. So, there is zero incentive to prevent or acknowledge mistakes. Not their problem, they simply say. This is one of the “beauties” of the banking system. Banks can make unlimited quantities of mistakes, and the client must pay for the bank’s mistake. 

Have you had any experience with bank errors that hurt you, and that they refused to correct? Share your banking horror story. 

Category: Chase Bank, banking errors, predatory banking