Beware of Mortgage Payment Reduction Notices
Every time the government comes out with some kind of program that is supposed to help homeowners there are companies that use marketing tricks to take advantage of that information.
There is nothing wrong with piggybacking off of the news or events. In fact that is very smart to do in your marketing for any company.
However, there are laws that must be obeyed when it comes to advertising and there are laws against false or deceitful advertising especially in the real estate and mortgage space. But that does not stop those who will use false advertising from doing it. And they tend to do it on a big scale.
The biggest trick they use it to make their mail look official as if it is from the government or from your lender.
Be very careful. There are so many scams out there. And there are a lot of "almost scams" - the ones that just toe the line to really look out for.
Right now there are these "payment reduction notices" being mailed out. We actually received one. The dead give away on ours was it was stating on the notice that our bank had our payment reduction in their "pending review" department. Well, the pending review that was listed was from a bank we had over 8 years ago and had refinanced with a new bank since then.
They make the mailer look very official.
It contains:
- An official looking ID number.
- Department phone number that looks official ( after all we call government offices, departments)
- Payment Reduction Status- then it says there- PENDING REVIEW
- Code- Oh yes, a code sounds important, doesn't it?
- Then it says they have important information about your loan. Sounds serious!
- Address Personal ID number- yes, that sounds official, like a government usage of words
- Notice Type: Homeowner relief ( this is the part that makes it appear like it is the government program)
Regarding: Home Loan Assistance Program. Hmmmm, that is the name of the government program. But this is NOT the government program they are sending out. This is where you need to be very careful. If you think you are calling the homeowner's relief program you will likely believe that the offer being offered to you is something that is good for you when in actuality it is not going to be.
Please be careful and don't fall for these false advertising Mortgage payment reduction notices.
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