The Illinois Attorney General has filed lawsuits against debt settlement firms Debt Relief USA, Inc. and SDS West Corporation for allegedly misrepresenting their services to consumers and failing to follow through on their obligation to settle their clients’ debts.

With a vote of 45 to 51, Senate Republicans defeated a measure that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to modify mortgage terms for bankruptcy filers, dealing a blow to the Obama administration’s foreclosure rescue program, which has yet to make a noticeable dent in the number of families losing their homes.

Hundreds of FBI agents and federal prosecutors could be hired to investigate the estimated 5,000 mortgage fraud claims that are reported every month if a new Senate bill becomes law.

In what is turning out to be the worst recession since the Great Depression, many Americans struggling to keep up with their bills and increasingly letting more and more of their medical bills go unpaid. However, that there are ways to manage your medical debt even if you aren’t capable of paying it off right away.

Earlier this week, the government announced new provisions to Obama’s Making Home Affordable plan that will target homeowners with second mortgages who have not already been helped by the government’s foreclosure rescue plan.

More than 1,000 people have been defrauded out of a total of $70 million after getting involved in a massive mortgage fraud scheme operated by Metro Dream Homes, a company that promised to pay off the mortgages of people who invested a minimum of $50,000 in Metro Dream Homes

In response to the rising number of mortgage scams in his state, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster announced a “zero tolerance” policy for companies engaging in misleading mortgage refinancing practices.

Seeking to clamp down on mortgage fraud, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York has asked the Obama administration for $100 million to help regional prosecutors combat the nationwide mortgage fraud problem

With the economy tanking, credit card companies are hoping consumers will bail them out in more ways than one. Taxpayers have already sent millions of their own dollars to card companies as part of the federal bailout. But now consumers are being asked to pick up the tab for card companies’ tanking balance sheets.

California’s unemployment rate hit a record 11.2 percent in March, leaving 2.1 million people jobless — the highest level since World War II.