Beware of foreclosure scammers

If you live by that rule of thumb and you're trying to avoid foreclosure, you'll seek out a for-profit foreclosure consultant who will charge you for any services provided. But consumer-protection advocates say you're much better off going to a nonprofit housing counseling agency that will work with you for free.

Ruth L. Griffin of the Maryland Housing Counselors Network says the only thing a nonprofit approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development might ask a struggling borrower to pay is an incidental cost such as the expense of ordering a credit report. There's a list of those groups at www.hud.gov/foreclosure.