U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, Attorney General Eric Holder, and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan issued a joint press release last week on combating foreclosure rescue and loan modification scams:

• [I]n a major step [last] week, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Justice, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Trade Commission announced a new joint effort that cuts across federal and state governments and the private sector to combat foreclosure rescue scams. Led by the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, this effort creates an advanced targeting process to streamline investigations and prosecutions and provides financial institutions with a new advisory to spot and report questionable loan modification schemes.

• For American homeowners, this means that fraudulent companies will be shut down more quickly; companies that otherwise would have gone unnoticed will be identified and investigated; and the government’s ability to identify and prosecute anyone involved in mortgage rescue scams will be bolstered.

For more, see Crackdown on fraud.

See also, The Washington Post: ‘We Will Find You and We Will Punish You’:

• There was tough talk out of Washington [last week] aimed at loan-modification scammers. Attorney General Eric Holder had this message for people and companies ripping off homeowners on the verge of foreclosure: “If you prey on vulnerable homeowners with fraudulent mortgage schemes, or discriminate against borrowers, we will find you and we will punish you.”