A Pennsylvania-based couple is suing Newrez's servicing arm, Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing, for OK'ing a fraudulent $500,000 home equity line of credit wire transfer.
The complaint, filed by Stephen and Cynthia Skertich in a Pennsylvania federal court, claims that Shellpoint did not flag an "obviously counterfeit" request from a bad actor and let the transaction go through, an action which could cost the couple their home.
Plaintiffs assert this demonstrates that Shellpoint does not have "any commercially reasonable security systems in place to prevent fraudulent wire transfers."
According to the complaint, the couple has an open $500,000 HELOC secured by their primary residence, which is currently serviced by Shellpoint, but was previously serviced by Specialized Loan Servicing — a company
During the acquisition of SLS and its merger into Shellpoint, the Skertichs did not receive any billing statements. However, in August the couple was sent their first statement from Shellpoint since it stopped doing business as SLS and discovered — to their shock — a new balance of $425,650. Previously their account had a $0 balance, the complaint dated Dec. 20 claims.
Shellpoint said it's aware of the suit, but cannot comment "on a particular customer's account without their permission."
"Shellpoint takes the issue of fraud very seriously and works closely with our customers to validate fraudulent activity and remove unauthorized transactions from our customers' accounts, as well as with law enforcement to support their investigations," a company spokesperson said.
After discovering this, the Skertichs immediately disputed the balance and were sent the request form used to initiate the wire transfer, which had forged signatures, the suit claims. The couple continued to dispute the charge and reported it to the police.
Despite reporting the fraudulent wire transfer and identity theft to both the company as well as to the police, Shellpoint is allegedly holding the customers liable for the sum transferred. The servicer also allegedly started foreclosure proceedings "in an attempt to coerce and harass plaintiffs into paying back the funds that were the subject of the fraudulent wire transfer," litigation claims.
The couple is asking for a Pennsylvania court to grant them relief for damages caused by Shellpoint's acts and omissions, and is accusing Newrez's servicing arm of violating the
Apart from this litigation, Newrez's newly acquired servicer has a number of other legal items pending against it.
Most recently, SLS was accused of
According to the suit, which is seeking class action certification, processing mortgage payments costs servicers less than 50 cents per transaction, which is why this service is usually offered for free. In response, Newrez said that since its acquisition of SLS, "no fees are charged to SLS homeowners who make a payment on their accounts."
In a separate suit, Specialized Loan Servicing is being accused of unfairly inflating the
