We are in contact with a writer at the Associated Press in Las Vegas. We need as many complaints against Wells Fargo and the HAMP program as possible. There are alot of people dealing with this and the more information I can give this guy, the more likely he is to write a story on it. The AP goes to every other media outlet as well, so it would be a big deal.

I have a story for you involving fraud and corruption through Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Company and I have proof. You may be aware of the current lawsuits throughout the nation involving the government run HAMP program?

Our loan is through Wells Fargo. We hired E- Mortgage and paid them $2000 last Spring 2009 to modify our home loan. We do not fall into the category of irresponsibility as some home buyers. We are self employed business owners who received a 30 year fixed loan at a 6.5% interest rate on our first home. We went into buying a home educated about home loans and ready with a $30, 000 down payment in late 2007. We were stiffed $40, 000 on a job right before the economy tanked in late 2008, early 2009. Between the non-payment and the economic downfall in late 2008/ early 2009 we hit rock bottom and didn't receive work for almost 8 months. We did not make our mortgage payment for 7 months (January 2009 - July 2009). We worked diligently and responsibly with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and E-Mortgage Recovery, LLC (Dave Swacheske - 610-329-2663 or 610-317-1501) to find a solution. We even called Wells Fargo before we discontinued making our payments to let them know our situation. We were offered a home modification through the HAMP program (Home affordable modification program) in the summer of 2009, "supposedly" with the help of E-Mortgage. There are recorded phone conversations with Wells Fargo Loss & Mitigation Representative (Ronda Pascasio 877-279-1649 ext.1504). We have paperwork from Wells Fargo describing our HAMP loan that we were approved for. Under the pretense that we successfully make our first 3 months of payments under the trial period we were told we would be approved for the loan.

Following the first three months, and having made the modification payments successfully, as told to, we continued to make our modified payments every month for 10 months on time, as directed by Wells Fargo. Throughout the next nine months (July. '09 - February '10) we were continuously told to submit and re-submit paperwork, that was conveniently and continuously lost or misplaced by Wells Fargo. In January '10, there is a recorded phone conversation with the above listed Wells Fargo agent that we were in continuous contact with, of my husband asking "Are our modified payments going towards the principle on our loan with no fines" and the representative answering "yes" as well as other questions "when will we receive finalization" - "just continue making your modified payments and submitting your paperwork and you will be fine." In February 2010 we were told by this same Wells Fargo representative that we did not qualify for the modification and to continue making our modified payments until they could find another option for us, that we did not need to submit our profit/loss statements or any other information until they could get us another load mod.

We started receiving phone calls from Wells Fargo everyday in late May 2010. We automatically became worried and my husband immediately called our representative to find out what was going on. She stated "everything was fine to continue making our modified payments and that they would continue trying to find a program that suited us." She then took our home phone number off of our account so that "the phone calls would stop" that it was a "miscommunication between their departments and to not worry about it". A couple of days later we received a notice in the mail stating that we had been kicked off our modification for not "receiving the right paperwork" and that our original loan payments were to start July 2010. Soon after we called again and were told another story, that we were in foreclosure and our home would be auctioned by June 28th, 2010 if we did not pay $3600 to "attempt" to re-modify our loan again - no promises.

About a week later we received foreclosure notices and auction dates on our front door. On the foreclosure notice it stated the sale of our home to be $40, 000 above our original home loan price. We were very confused as to why our loan had jumped $40, 000 - they told us that we were never on a modification plan and that after the first three month trial period we were to have continued making our original payments of over $2000 a month, due to this we incurred $40, 000 in fee's through Wells Fargo. They had lied to us for 9 months and used our situation to get more money out of our loan, this was the first we had heard of any of this. We are also confused as to how we were "just" kicked of the modification program in May 2010, but that we were told at the same time we were never on a modification program to begin with?

We then began researching continuously night and day, although both of us work full time this has been difficult to handle having been given little to no notice from Wells Fargo. We have found hundreds to thousands of other home owners dealing with the exact same situations - constantly re-occuring. According to a Fox News story written on this (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03/01/homeowners-say-banks-underwater-spurning-loan-program-rules/) this is a breach of contract and a violation of government enforced rules.

We have been working diligently to contact several lawyers all weekend throughout the Northern Nevada area as well as a few in several other states where lawsuits are being filed. The public needs to know about this! As I'm sure you are aware the housing situation in Northern Nevada is certainly no better than anywhere else & I am sure that there are many many others in the area who are dealing with this fraudulent activity. I am a journalism student for a reason, I believe in the peoples power to fight against these types of situations and I believe in the media's watch dog job. Please help us, we don't have very much time and we are not willing to let this continue without a fight. We very likely could lose our home but if we can help others in the future to not lose theirs, we will.

Please feel free to contact my husband (Zac) or I regarding any of this, we can work to supply any documentation or proof needed to bring this to the public.
Zac, Talia.