Thanks for typing up your letter. The "interest reduction option" is the ACT Program which is super-overpriced software to reduce your mortgage interest. You are guaranteed to lose money if you buy it but if you so choose to, you can achieve the same results on your own for FREE by simply paying extra principal every time you pay your regular mortgage payment. Your letter is the same as Lisa M's here http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-888-656-9964 where I've posted what I know about this scam. ACT used to offer a mortgage audit for $199, $99 refund if they find nothing wrong with your mortgage paperwork (they keep $100 to keep the lights on), and this time, ACT is leaving out the audit part and going straight for the up-sell to the ACT Program. All is explained in the link I posted above. Please stay away from AED, ACT and the ACT Program.

I did not get a phone call but I got one of their letters indicating that 40 to 60 percent of mortgages processed over the past 10 years have inaccurate interest calculations which have cost consumers millions of dollars they did not owe. They indicated on the mailer that with a Mortgage Audit they can determine how much "you" have been over charged in interest which "can range from $1,500 to over $7,800.00". Weird how they left out the decimal point in 1,500.

I went to the website listed on the mailer and saw a very nice presentation on how a mortgage audit could save you money you should not be paying and how you will receive a written report to take into your bank and how they will refund your money.

I called them and got the run around when asking why they do not explain who they are on the mailer. When asked how much would it cost me if I decided to proceed with the Mortgage Audit, REX the phone representative, indicated that it would cost $199. I asked if I had to pay first and he indicated that he would take a payment of $199 and if they did not find any refund than they would credit back $90. When I asked what is the likelihood of them finding some mistake and me getting a refund from the bank, he indicated that "honestly" very rarely does it happen. The number indicated on the mailer was 888-835-5808. Ex 5150. I thought it was ironic that his extension was the same code number for placing someone on a psychiatric 72 hour hold for being a treat to themselves or others. What a SCAM!

Got a letter:

"Based on city and county records, your mortgage that funded on **/**/**** in the amount of $**,*** is now eligible for an interest reduction option which is estimated to decrease your scheduled mortgage interest by $**,***.

This reduction option is currently available in the ***** ***  area and is part of a nationwide program created to help stabilize the housing market and increase homeowners equity, with no refinancing and no loan modification required.

A consumer analysis is available to those that receive this notice. This analysis is provided to confirm interest and term reduction eligibility.

Call now toll free 1-888-656-9964 for further information. As a part of this interest reduction service, please reference eligilbility ID: ********* when calling".

I got the same letter that Lisa M posted.  Smelling a rat, I google'd the 800 number and found my way here.  Thanks for your detective work!

If it helps, I'm in the Tampa Bay area of Florida.

No one said anything about snail-mail mailing -- not the letter, not Lisa M,. not me -- so what in the world are you raving about?

If you call their number 888-656-9964; you will hear an office closed announcement. So why waste the mail postage fee?

I came to this thread from your post on http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-877-778-4727/3  Thanks for typing up your letter. I've been trailing this scammer for a while and a detailed post like yours is a Godsend. Using "ACT" for a company name is clever because search engines will return zillions of hits -- it helps with the camouflage every scammer wants. And yes, it's a new number, the 15th so far by my count. It looks like they may have abandoned the audit-your-mortgage-for-$199 approach and streamlined their marketing to directly push their real money-making scam called the ACT Program (software to "decrease your scheduled mortgage interest"). "This reduction option is ... part of a nationwide program created to help stabilize the housing market" is insane scam-marketing -- what sense does it make for homeowners to tie up their cash in an illiquid asset (their home) when home values are already depressed from the ~1 million foreclosed homes on the market and face continued downward pressure from the additional some millions of homes on their way to foreclosure?

What follows is my "usual" warning on this scam; you may have already read parts or all of it on other threads.

The company is AED = Accelerated Equity & Development but doing business as ACT = Accelerated Cashflow Technologies.
BBB listing http://www.bbb.org/utah/business-reviews/fore ... per-ut-10061629 that states "Beginning in 2010, the BBB began receiving numerous contacts from the public regarding a mass mail campaign conducted by Accelerated Equity & Development, Inc, also known as ACT. The BBB has contacted the company and requested information and modifications based on the BBB's Code of Advertising Guidelines. The company has been asked to address concerns about the solicitations' ambiguity, layout and results expected from service advertised. Consumers continue to express concerns about the mailing - mainly regarding the fact that the company does not identify themselves completely (when they are asking for personal information consumers expect the company to provide their complete contact information and full name)."

AED's Utah business license https://secure.utah.gov/bes/action/details?entity=1429559-0142
No Utah business license exists for ACT (as far as I know). Anyone is welcome to search here https://secure.utah.gov/bes/action
Utah requires all businesses including DBAs to be registered http://corporations.utah.gov/pdf/buslicguide.pdf
"Who Must Register Their Business?
All businesses in Utah are required by law to register with the Utah Department of Commerce either as a "DBA" (Doing Business As), corporation, limited liability company or limited partnership. Businesses are also required to obtain a business license from the city or county in which they are located."
Does the state of Utah even *know* that AED is Doing Business As ACT???

AED is linked to United First Financial who sold the Money Merge Account http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_First_Financial
AED/UFF has abandoned its MLM agents, sold exclusive marketing rights of the Money Merge Account to Market America (think acres of phone banks) and repackaged the $3,500 MMA as the $49.95/month "ACT Program." The MMA was sold as software to retire your mortgage early and to "save" hundreds of $thousands in mortgage interest, i.e., implied it was a financial gain to spend $3,500 to "save" hundreds of $thousands in mortgage interest. The repackaged "ACT Program" now decreases tens to hundreds of $thousands of scheduled mortgage interest at $49.95/month. You can do the same for FREE by simply paying extra principal every time you pay your regular mortgage payment -- the more extra principal you pay, the earlier you pay it, the shorter the loan term will be and the less interest your mortgage will cost you. The MMA used the same principal-prepayment method but scammy-marketed it instead as proprietary software that achieved the "savings" without disclosing what the actual mechanism was.

The $49.95/month ACT Program is just a new name for the old $3,500 Money Merge Account that's been thoroughly debunked here http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/741118/ with a Quick Summary on page 1. In reality, you will *LOSE* some $thousands if you buy the ACT Program. In fact, mikef07 states at the top of http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/741118/?start=914 that "The results do show that by using the MMA software it would cost me $5070.29 extra" than doing it on his own and that was when the MMA was $3,500. The present value of $49.95/month for ~10 years (assumes you pay a 30-year mortgage in 10 years) at 1% APR compounded monthly (what savings accounts are giving) is ~$5,700 so the $3,500 price for the MMA has been sneakily increased to $5,700 today for the ACT Program. The $5,700 MMA-repackaged-as-ACT-Program means mikef07 will lose 5070.29-3500+5700=$7,270.29 today.  

The ACT Program falls into a category of scams where the product/service being sold actually works but is unnecessary, or you can achieve the same result with competing software at much lower $cost, or for FREE doing it yourself. If you knew all the ways and costs of achieving the same results, you would *NEVER* buy the ACT Program because you'd be paying big $$$ for something easy that you can do yourself for FREE. The scam is in the marketing using twisted language to obfuscate and confuse like "decreasing" or "saving" scheduled mortgage interest that has yet to be paid. "Saving" interest is a stupid concept often used in advertising to confuse consumers. The concept of "saving" interest is stupid because "saved" interest does not leave your pocket. What does leave your pocket is the actual interest you pay, i.e., the interest you get to deduct on your tax forms. "Saved" interest is just a number on paper and totally useless. If a $2 can of beans went on sale for $0.75 and advertised as "saving" you $1.25, you should only consider whether the can of beans is worth $0.75 and should ignore the $1.25 in "savings." Would you be happier if the can was priced at $5? If so, you'll be "saving" $4.25 though you'll be paying the same $0.75 for the same can of beans. Are you any richer by "saving" $4.25 instead of $1.25? Obviously not. The only money that left your pocket was the $0.75 for the can of beans, not $1.25 or $4.25, and the only important measure is whether the beans was worth the $0.75 that left your pocket, everything else is irrelevant.

FOLKS, DO NOT BUY ANY PROGRAM TO RETIRE YOUR MORTGAGE EARLY AND "REDUCE" OR "SAVE" OR "DECREASE" SCHEDULED MORTGAGE INTEREST --- YOU CAN DO THE SAME YOURSELF FOR FREE! FREE! FREE! I paid off a 15-year mortgage in 66 months and had scheduled mortgage interest decreased by some tens of $thousands, all by myself and without the $3,500 MMA (forerunner of the $5,700 ACT Program), a spreadsheet or a financial calculator. If I can, you can too, just pay extra principal along with your regular mortgage payment (to the extent possible given the size of your paycheck and other expenses) though it may not be wise to lock up your cash in an illiquid asset (your home) in this housing crisis with ~1 million foreclosed homes on the market and more on the way. Whatever you do -- *DON'T* buy the $5,700 ACT Program! What sense does it make to give $49.95 away every month for ~10 years to AED when that money could go to paying down the principal on your loan instead?

STAY FAR, FAR AWAY FROM AED, ACT, AND THE $5,700 ACT PROGRAM AND BEWARE OF SHILLS ON THIS THREAD.

I also found this news story regarding these scams, which apparently are offereing interest reductions now rather than actual refunds.

http://www.nbc12.com/story/13494915/warning-a ... redirected=true

Just received this letter today:

Based on city and county records, your mortgage that funded on **/**/**** in the amount of $**,*** is now eligible for an interest reduction option which is estimated to decrease your scheduled mortgage interest by $**,***.

This reduction option is currently available in the ***** ***  area and is part of a nationwide program created to help stabilize the housing market and increase homeowners equity, with no refinancing and no loan modification required.

A consumer analysis is available to those that receive this notice. This analysis is provided to confirm interest and term reduction eligibility.

Call now toll free 1-888-656-9964 for further information. As a part of this interest reduction service, please reference eligilbility ID: ********* when calling.



Smelled a rat and searched for the company name, which is only ACT. No other company description is available, and when I google ACT most of the results reflect government acts that have been passed. Apparently the phone number is new since a Google turned up nothing. Yet.