We recently received a phone call from a company called “Franklin Financial” about our home that was listed as being in foreclosure. Things that tipped us off were, we have no mortgages/loans/credit cards or any sort of financial dealings with any company called Franklin Financial. Second, we make all of our payments on time (early even!), so anyone claiming that we’d defaulted on a loan with be incorrect at best. The call was very brief, after telling them they must be mistaken we hung up.
This got me to thinking, they are probably looking to scam folks. The caller ID listed the phone number at (410) 612-8139. A quick search on Google indicated someone else caught the same call. I called the number back to see what the answering service said was the name of the company. The recording says the name too fast for me to be sure, I think it’s something like WestArm. The address was a bit slower though: 626 Towne Center Drive, Joppa, MD. A few more minutes of searching turned up:
http://articles.directorym.net/NeighborWorks_Mortgages_and_Loan_Education_Joppa_MD-r944076-Joppa_MD.html
Premier Mortgage Funding Inc
(410) 612-8139
626 Towne Center Dr
Joppa, MD
Hard to know for sure if this is the same Premier Mortgage Funding Inc that filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, but that’s one more reason to raise the red flag. It’s possible that Franklin Financial is this same Premier Mortgage Funding company under a new name.
Bottom line, if you get a phone call from an institution that you don’t do business with asking to help you with your property that’s in default, don’t give them any information! Even if the person on the other end of the phone claims to be from your bank or mortgage holder, don’t give them any information. Indicate that you’ll call your bank back to verify the request.
3 replies on “Beware of Phone Calls About Your Home Being in Foreclosure”
I get 3-5 or more of these a week. We bought our house 3 months ago, so we haven’t had time for foreclosure. 😀
For most, if you select 2 it will take you off their list forever. They are required to offer a way to get off their list, but you have to listen for a while to figure that out. They will keep calling, which is frustrating.
Thanks for reminding everyone that these are scams.
This call wasn’t automated, it was a real person. Not sure if that makes it more or less likely to be a scam.
Great advice Joseph.
I’ve started receiving a lot of these calls recently too. I am always on time on one mortgage and actually way ahead on the other. And I checked with my bank and they confirmed everything is fine. So I know these calls are BS!
I receive a combination of robo-call messages and a real person messages. After the 3rd or 4th ‘real person’ call from the same guy in the space of a couple of weeks, I called him back on the number he left (a local area code number) to do some investigation work. He answered but said he couldn’t hear me, so he called me back. He said he was with Realty Network (probably a lie). When I told him my house isn’t being foreclosed on and politely asked him to stop calling or I’d seek legal action he got very abusive, so I responded in kind. From the call quality, his accent, and the line delay it sounded like he was from an Indian call center.
Like many of this type of caller/company, these guys do not adhere to the National Do Not Call list. They call from ‘restricted’ numbers, provide no option to unsubscribe, and often laugh when you mention the list. And even when they do provide this option it’s often just a way of determining if a phone number is ‘live’ so they can bug you even more. So using Unsubscribe options can sometimes be worse than not responding.
Either way folks, like Joseph says, don’t be tricked by these clowns. They are trying to trick you!