be disproportionate to the service received, the firm may be unable to negotiate any better terms or in the worst cases may not contact the lender. Firms may also encourage the original borrower to avoid any contact with the lender, under the guise that such contact would interfere with their efforts to secure a modification, when in fact it might reveal that the firm has not contacted the lender at all. When negotiation does take place the firm may put in place a deal to buy the property from the lender, if the equity value of the property has reduced, then this may be at a lower price than the current outstanding debt. Lenders may accept this to guarantee payment now, rather than gamble on future values, ability of the owner to pay etc. In these cases the situation can be similar to the other schemes with the original owner being offered the option to rent the property with a future buy back. As for the other schemes in a scam situation the terms of any tenancy or buy back may also be set to the gross disadvantage of the original owner. Loan modification scam In this case a firm will market to you aggressively to help you get a loan modification. These scammers target the homes of older seniors with equity which are the types that servicers usually won't modify. They may help you get a modification for a rental property first in order to win your trust. When they get to the property with equity they will trick you into missing payments, convince you to ignore the notice of default and notice of trustee's sale, and trick you into missing your sale date - all while telling you they are getting you a modification. Meanwhile, they will feed the property to their investors who will be waiting at the foreclosure sale to scoop up your hidden gem. See also Foreclosure rescue Mortgage fraud References Consumer fraud Subprime mortgage crisis Rescue scheme