Two Arkansas women who have been sued for defrauding at least 139 people in a credit-repair scam have refused to respond to a judge’s order to pay $700,000 in penalties and have even started a new credit repair operation.

With more than 2.1 million homeowners estimated to lose their homes this year according to Moody’s projections, more and more homeowners nationwide are falling prey to mortgage modification scams promising to help homeowners retain their homes.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has sued Credit Solutions of America, Inc. and Nationwide Asset Services, Inc. for fraud, deceptive practices, and false advertising on behalf of 20,000 New York consumers.

April marked the second month in a row that more than 300,000 troubled homeowners received foreclosure notices, a jump of 32 percent over the same time last year.

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New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has subpoenaed 14 debt settlement companies and one law firm as part of an investigation into the debt settlement industry, a move that has been labeled a “P.R. stunt” by an industry lawyer.

To keep renters from ending up on the street after their landlords have lost their property to foreclosure, the Ohio House has passed a bill that will help protect renters in the state from being victimized by the nation’s housing crisis.

Although many banks have already received their portion of the $75 billion the government has allocated for the new Making Home Affordable plan, some mortgage lenders are moving so slowly to modify homeowners’ mortgages through the plan that homeowners fear they could still lose their homes to foreclosure.

In what may be the first statewide order of its kind, the South Carolina Supreme Court has temporarily suspended an estimated 5,000 pending home foreclosures to give homeowners more time to take advantage of a new government program that helps them refinance their mortgage.

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray has completely shut down one organization and subpoenaed 10 others suspected of running illegal foreclosure-rescue operations as part of the state’s effort to crack down on foreclosure prevention scams.