Half of Predatory 'Victims' Not Duped.

Half the people who have asked for relief under a program to aid borrowers who have been victimized by predatory lenders were not duped at all, according to a community activist.

"They believed they were wronged, but it was really a matter of education," according to David Berenbaum of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition here, which operates the Consumer Rescue Fund with a $12 million commitment from Household Finance.

Mr. Berenbaum is senior vice president for policy and the director of civil rights for NCRC, a coalition of 800 nonprofit groups that seek to increase the flow of private capital into traditionally undeserved communities.

He told the Mortgage Bankers Association's Subprime Lending Conference here earlier this month that 500 consumers have come forward during the first year of the program, "a much larger number than we expected."

But only 250 were actually victims of abusive lending tactics, he said. The other 250 just needed either financial education or counseling to understand the issues.

Of the group who were scammed in one way or another, the consumer advocate also reported, about 45% received their mortgages through brokers who were nowhere to be found once the loans were placed with funding ...