FCC Warns of Nationwide Spoofing Mortgage Relief Scam
The FCC issued a consumer alert, an enforcement advisory and a public notice warning about a spoofed mortgage relief call campaign in all 50 states it calls “Green Mirage.” The agency has classified the campaign as a consumer communications information services threat. The Enforcement Bureau “applies this classification to heighten awareness of these threat actors among our law enforcement partners and industry stakeholders,” said the public notice. Under the scheme, callers phone homeowners posing as their mortgage lender, threaten foreclosure but then offer relief if the homeowner makes payments that go to the scammer, the agency said. “The use of the real mortgage lender’s caller ID number, along with knowledge of the homeowner’s personal information, creates a persuasive guise of legitimacy,” the FCC’s public notice said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
The callers typically demand payments delivered as money orders to third-parties posing as attorneys or in funds uploaded to a Walmart Green Dot Money Card account. “In perpetrating its scheme, Green Mirage has impersonated over 400 mortgage institutions and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars of losses to deceived homeowners,” an FCC release said. “Many victims only learned of the fraud when their actual lender initiated foreclosure proceedings.” According to the enforcement advisory, Green Mirage “is comprised of a group of individuals and entities operating in the United States and India.” Green Mirage callers often use typical first names, “such as Robin, Alan, Michael, and Davis, and common surnames such as Matthews, Richardson, Sinclair, and Williams.”
The callers may at some point also claim they're calling from the mortgage lending institution’s “Mortgage Lending Department” or the “Loss Mitigation Department” and refer to their offer as “Homeowner Assistance Fund Program,” the advisory said. “Law enforcement, industry stakeholders, and consumers should regard Green Mirage as a potential threat to communications information services,” said the agency. "Today’s actions both warn consumers of this latest set of scams, and put on notice all other voice service providers to immediately stop carrying these junk calls,” said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a release.