The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday announcedactions to halt two alleged mortgage loan modification scams the bureau said ripped off thousands of strugglinghomeowners.

In total, the operations took in more than $10 million bycharging consumers for services that falsely promised to preventforeclosures or renegotiate troubled mortgages.

“We are taking on schemes that prey on consumers who arestruggling to pay their mortgages or facing foreclosure,” said CFPBDirector Richard Cordray. “We are especially concerned with thosewho misrepresent government programs or websites to divertdistressed homeowners from needed assistance.”

At the request of the CFPB, federal judges in California haveordered a halt to both operations, the Los Angeles-based Gordon LawFirm and the Santa Ana-based National Legal Help Center, and frozentheir assets while the CFPB moves forward with the cases. The caseinvolving the National Legal Help Center were initially referred tothe CFPB by the Office of the Special Inspector General for theTroubled Asset Relief Program and Treasury's Office ofFinancial Stability, which have coordinated closely with the Bureauthroughout the investigation.

“It is absolutely unacceptable for unscrupulous con artists totake advantage of our nation's housing crisis by targetinghomeowners looking for help from TARP's Home AffordableModification Program,” said Christy Romero, special inspectorgeneral for TARP (SIGTARP). “We thank the CFPB for protectinghomeowners. SIGTARP will continue to stop these scams andeducate homeowners that mortgage modifications through HAMP arefree.”

The CFPB complaints allege that the defendants in both casesviolated the Dodd-Frank Act and Regulation O, formerly known as theMortgage Assistance Relief Services Rule. These laws prohibitunfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices and protectdistressed homeowners from mortgage relief scams.

In both cases, the CFPB alleges that the organizations illegallycharged large upfront fees, deceptively claimed to be affiliatedwith government agencies and/or programs, misrepresented that theywould secure loan modifications for borrowers and instructedborrowers to stop paying their mortgages and stop communicatingwith lenders.

The CFPB also alleges that, after pocketing thousands of dollarsin illegal fees from one distressed homeowner after another, thedefendants in both cases typically stopped returning consumers'phone calls and emails. In the end, many consumers learned that thedefendants had not contacted their lenders or obtained anymeaningful relief for them.

Ultimately, homeowners across the country lost thousands ofdollars each and suffered significant economic injury, includinglosing their homes, the CFPB said.