Complaint Review: Claremont Funding - Baldwin New York

Barbara Yonenson, a representative of Claremont Funding is a fraud.  Barbara called us to state that she would come to our home to help us avoid foreclosure.  We invited her to our home, provided her with something to eat and shared copies of all the paperwork her office said we should have ready. Barbara took a look at what we had presented and confirmed that they could handle our case, however, she said she could not begin the process until she had at least $1300 up front.  My husband and I were caught off guard as the representative we spoke with prior to meeting Barbara said we would not need to give any money right away.  All we would need to do is compile the necessary documents and allow Barbara some time to review and provide the guidance on the next steps.  Needless to say we gave her cash and the only receipt we have showing that we gave her cash does not have her signature as a recipient.  Barbara said she would send us a receipt and provide us on the next steps we should take.  That was in April 2012.  As instructed on the receipt and expressed verbally by Barbara we would need to send two additional payments of $1300 each made out to Claremont Funding.  One in May and the other in June.  We followed these instructions and eagerly awaited to hear from the lawyer.  We were told not to contact our mortgage company but to contact them should our mortgage company call us....so they could handle the calls.  We signed a letter authorizing Claremont Funding to speak on our behalf.  We never received any correspondence from Claremont.  No phone calls.  No mail.  Each time we contacted Barbara to follow up on our case she made excuses that she was either out of town, sick or "will get back to us".  If we got a hold of a representative we were told that we needed to submit additional paperwork not limited to paperwork that we had previously sent.  We have avoided making contact with our bank because we sincerely thought they were handling everything but boy did we get snowed!  We spoke to our bank today, March 7, 2013.  They never heard of Claremont!  There is nothing on file stating that we gave Claremont or anyone else for that matter the authority to speak on our behalf!  We are in foreclosure and the only way we might be able to avoid that is by being reviewed for a modification.  My husband became very furious at the thought that we have been scammed and called Barbara...who conveniently said that she is going to have surgery.  Barbara also told my husband that she was no longer with the company.  When he asked her where the office was located she said there was no office and that they all work out of their homes.  Well....when were we going to be notified about this?   When my husband asked for a refund, she said you only get refunds when you get rejected.  How can we be rejected if nothing was ever done on our case?  About 2 hours after his conversation with Barbara someone named Albert called him back to reiterate that we are not in foreclosure and everything is going along as planned.  Albert said he had just spoken to our mortgage company, blah, blah, blah.  When my husband asked Albert for his name the man hung up.  Mind you he called my husband from a restricted number.  I don't know what's more disturbing...the fact that our most personal and confidential information is lying around in someone's house or the fact that we are not the only people that have been scammed!  If there is ever a lawsuit to be filed against these people we would be more than willing to sign the petition.