Los Angeles Times has three solid recommendations in an article today entitled, “Beware of foreclosure prevention scams.”

Here are the key points:

1. If the company claims to be able to guarantee success in preventing foreclosure, no matter what your financial situation or mortgage details, don’t listen further to the pitch. Nobody can guarantee you’ll get a loan modification, and nobody can guarantee that your lender won’t pull the plug and foreclose.
2. Although there is no federal law against collection of upfront fees for loan modification assistance — unlike so-called credit repair operations, through which fees are prohibited until services are completed — any company asking for $1,000 to $4,000 in advance should be checked out thoroughly by the homeowner before any payment.
3. Mortgage modification companies that claim to have special inside connections allowing them to make your payments directly to your lender — provided you send your monthly checks to the modification company, not to your regular servicer — are almost certainly intent on one thing: cashing as many of your checks as possible, pocketing the money and leaving you unprotected and heading for foreclosure.

As of April 6, 2009, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was investigating about 2,100 mortgage fraud cases throughout the nation — a 400 percent increase from five years ago.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explore the options of a possible loan modification with your lender. Just be careful.

And try not to pay any upfront money to a third-party company with an official-sounding name when you may not have to. Especially because there are free government programs such as “Making Home Affordable” that offer housing counselors and other helpful support at no cost.

To check and see if you are eligible for a loan modification use this self-assessment tool right here.