The Delaware Department of Justice, 48 other state attorneys general, the District of Columbia and over 45 state mortgage regulators have reached a settlement with New Jersey-based mortgage lender and servicer PHH Mortgage Corporation over improper loan servicing. Approximately 123 Delawareans are eligible for a payment as a result of the settlement.

The settlement resolves allegations that PHH, the nation’s ninth largest non-bank residential mortgage servicer, improperly serviced mortgage loans from January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2012, including failing to properly apply or amortize payments, charging authorized fees for defaults, failing to maintain complete loan files, robosigning affidavits used in foreclosures, referring matters to foreclosure improperly, losing or failing to timely process loss mitigation applications and paperwork, and other actions. The agreement requires PHH to adhere to comprehensive mortgage servicing standards, to conduct audits, and to provide audit results to a committee of states. The settlement does not release PHH from liability for conduct that occurred beginning in 2013.

“The settlement holds PHH accountable for harms homeowners suffered from improper loan servicing and shows our continued dedication to this area,” Attorney General Matt Denn said. “The agreement requires new servicing standards to help ensure that PHH doesn’t repeat conduct that led to improper mortgage servicing, and to provide financial relief to aggrieved homeowners.”

Borrowers who were subjected to PHH foreclosures during the eligible period will qualify for a minimum $840 payment, and borrowers who faced foreclosures that PHH initiated during the eligible period, but did not lose their home, will receive a minimum $285 payment. A settlement administrator will contact eligible payment recipients, including those in Delaware, at a later date.

The settlement includes $31.4 million in payments to borrowers, plus administrative penalties paid to state mortgage regulators (Delaware’s $159,000 went to the state General Fund), and additional payments to the 12 state attorneys general who led the investigation and negotiations.

Deputy Attorney General Gillian Andrews handled the matter on behalf of the Delaware DOJ Consumer Protection Unit.

The Delaware Department of Justice Consumer Protection Unit announced the process for filing claims for restitution for Delaware residents tricked into sending payments to scammers using Western Union has opened. The reimbursements come as the result of a settlement between Western Union and a group of 49 states plus the District of Columbia, born out of an investigation into complaints from consumers who used the wire service to send money to third parties involved in schemes to defraud consumers.

Anyone who believes they could be eligible for reimbursement and has not already filed with Western Union or the Delaware Department of Justice should do so by going to http://www.westernunionremission.com/. Between 650,000 and 750,000 consumers around the country already identified as possible victims that may be eligible to receive the restitution will get claims forms from the claims administrator.

The settlement announced in January required Western Union to develop and put into action a comprehensive anti-fraud program designed to help detect and prevent incidents where consumers use Western Union to wire money to scam artists.

The settlement also called for Western Union to pay $586 million to a fund administered by the U.S. Department of Justice to provide refunds to consumers, as well as paying an amount to the states to cover the costs associated with the investigations that led to the settlements. Delaware received $43,630 for the state Consumer Protection Fund that handled the investigation, led by Deputy Attorney General Christian Wright.

The announcement of the settlement can be found here.

Attorney General Matt Denn joined 33 fellow state Attorneys General in expressing concern to Equifax on Friday about some of the actions taken by the credit bureau in the wake of a data breach that exposed personal information for more than 140 million individuals.

The letter requests that Equifax, which is offering free credit monitoring to those individuals affected by the data breach, cease offering a competing credit monitoring that customers have to pay for, and to incorporate any protections from the paid version in the free one.

”We believe continuing to offer consumers a fee-based service in addition to Equifax’s free monitoring services will serve to only confuse consumers who are already struggling to make decisions on how to best protect themselves in the wake of this massive breach,” the letter states. “Selling a fee-based product that competes with Equifax’s own free offer of credit monitoring services to victims of Equifax’s own data breach is unfair, particularly if consumers are not sure if their information was compromised.”

Also, since one of the recommend actions for consumers whose credit information may have been exposed is to place a freeze on the credit with all three major credit bureaus, the letter from the Attorneys General requests that Equifax reimburse any consumers for fees being paid for credit freezes. Equifax is now waiving fees to freeze credit with it, but the other two major credit bureaus – Experian and TransUnion – are charging many customers for credit freezes, as allowed in Delaware and other state laws.

The Delaware Department of Justice Consumer Protection Unit is investigating the Equifax data breach for potential action.

Advice to consumers for dealing with the potential loss of personal information was issued by DOJ earlier this week: https://news.delaware.gov/2017/09/12/equifax/

The letter to Equifax from the Attorneys General can be seen here.

The Delaware Department of Justice Consumer Protection Unit has the following information and suggestions following news of the theft of personal information relating to more than 140 million individuals from Equifax. Equifax is one of the three major credit bureaus that compile and provide information to lenders about a person’s credit.

• See if you are affected. Equifax has a website – www.equifaxsecurity2017.com – where you can input your last name and partial Social Security number and find out if the company believes you are one of the people affected by the hack and exposure of information. Given that the number of people affected is almost half of the U.S. population, there is a good chance you are.
• Consider freezing your credit. Freezing your credit means no one can make inquiries about your credit history or open a new credit card or other account in your name. That includes you unless you lift the freeze when you are applying for a credit card or account or loan, or if you use a PIN that should be provided to you when you initiate the freeze. You will need to place a freeze with each of the three credit bureaus, and can do so by going to:
  • https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html
  • https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo.jsp
  • https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze/place-credit-freeze

You can also call Equifax (1-800-349-9960), Experian (1-888-397-3742) or TransUnion (1-888-909-8872). The credit bureaus may charge $5 or $10 to freeze your credit.

• Sign up for credit monitoring. Equifax is offering all those affected one year of free credit monitoring, which would let you know when activity occurs on your credit history, such as the opening of a new account or credit card. While there have been questions, Equifax is publicly representing that “enrolling in the free credit file monitoring and identity theft protection that we are offering as part of this cybersecurity incident does not waive any rights to take legal action.” There are other credit monitoring services commercially available if you don’t want to use the one offered by Equifax.
• Monitor your credit history yourself. Anyone can check their own credit histories at www.annualcreditreport.com, which is required to be offered by the federal government. You are able to get a free check with each of the three bureaus once a year. Some people choose to check on a rotating basis, checking with a different bureau every four months. Watch for accounts or loans or other activity that you did not initiate.
• File your taxes early. One of the things identity thieves may do is use your information to file a false tax return and try to obtain the refund. For people whose personal information may have been stolen, it is recommended to file your tax return as soon as possible in the tax season after receiving all the required information, in order to reduce the window in which identity thieves might try to file with your information.

The Delaware Department of Justice Consumer Protection Unit has been selected as one of 8 jurisdictions around the country to host a training for law enforcement on preventing, investigating and prosecuting financial exploitation of senior citizens.

The training, put on by the National White Collar Crime Center and the United States Department of Justice, will allow for 100 area law enforcement officers to learn effective ways to respond to complex elder fraud cases. The training is expected to be held in Wilmington in April 2018.

“A primary goal of the Delaware Department of Justice is to protect Delawareans from harm, and seniors are one of our most valuable yet most vulnerable populations,” said Attorney General Matt Denn. “Those who prey on the elderly need to be caught and punished for their crimes, so I’m honored and proud that we have been selected to provide local law enforcement with this opportunity. I want to thank and congratulate Deputy Attorney General Gina Schoenberg, head of our office’s Senior Protection Initiative, and Chief Special Investigator Alan Rachko for their work on the application and identifying the proper mix of officers to participate.”

In addition to Delaware, other jurisdictions selected by USDOJ for the training are: Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota; Denmark, Tennessee; Topeka, Kansas; Hidalgo County, Texas; Columbia, South Carolina; Ada, Oklahoma; and King County, Washington.

National studies conclude that nearly 10 percent of older Americans have experienced some form of financial exploitation or fraud in the past year at a financial loss estimated in the billions of dollars, with some experts asserting that financial exploitation is the most common form of elder abuse.