hello, i was a near victim mortgage fraud. luckily, i figured out before it was too late, that this company is a scam/con artist. and they are really good at what they do. me and my husband started applying for a mortgage loan about a month ago. i applyed alot online, risky but mostly was reputable companies i had heard of. but a few random ones that popped up in a search for bad credit lenders/mortgage. me and my husband have bad credit, good income. we didnt even qualify for an fha loan based on our credit score. i had heard alot of no's and some maybes. suddenly a lady calles from a company called LM, loan mart. she says we are approved for a conventional home loan. with only 5% interest and only 5400 bucks down. wow, i though, too good to be true. i sure didnt think we could get a conventional loan, let alone great interest rate and very little money down. less than fha! well my husband and i were of course skeptical. i immidiatly started researching this company lm loan mart on the web. with surprisingly little results which was weird, also when i entered the owner alex carneys name little showed up. and nothing for my loan lady stephanie longwood. i was advised to check the BBB and DRE websites to check up on them,by my realtor. i did. found them, they had a b+ rating and no complaints. sounded good to me. dre they checked out, licensed. i felt a bit more secure. i asked a million questions to my "loan lady" all of which she answered with great answers. almost like what i wanted to hear. so i had no dirt on them. i almost sent them the 5400 bucks by moneywire like they asked. they say you pay that upfront and they send you your mortgage amount in 1-3 days. cash into your bank acct. many people advised me that this is NOT how loans work. you never send money like that. and definitly not for cash. a mortgage loan is one thing, a cash loan for a mortgage purpose is another. i agreed and kept researching. well i then typed the companies loan broker registration number into the web. straight from the contract they sent me, that looked real to me. i am a first time homebuyer however. well when i did the search, nothing about loan mart came as a result. but there was a few webistes with people complaining about a company called southern financial. i didnt bother clicking them, and searched on with the other 3 license/registration numbers on the contract. nothing really popped up. well yesterday i ran that loan broker registration number one last time, and i did click on those websites with complaints about southern financial. i read them. eerily they were very similar to my current situation. they said this company approved them for loans, did contracts, and then had them wire money to them, in return promising a cash loan. well they said they paid thousands and never recieved there loan as contracted. they never got there down payments back either. they call the people and they no longer answer. eventually changing phone number and buisness adress. those victims had called the fbi, federal trade commissions, BBB and DRE. as well as lawyers. they wanted to sue, or have these people shut down. they said they have had little luck finding them. and none have gotten money back. well i was then worried that this was my situation, and i could loose my 5400 bucks. even though the loan lady promised me it was a binding contract and legitamate. she would tell me whatever she had to to get me to send money to them i guess. those victims claim this company, although said on there contracts was located in southern califonia, were in fact in canada. making it even harder to sue them. well at this point is where i put the final peices of the puzzle together. those victims posted the 4 license/registration numbers in these complaints. becasue they thought the company goes by different names/numbers/adresses. well i looked at them, and quickly realized those 4 numbers were the EXACT AND IDENTICAL ones on MY contract from LM loan mart. it is them! they changed there name and stuff, but those numbers, all 4 seperate accreditations, are the same. as well as some other charactaristics. like the victims said there loan ladies emailed from ymail. my loan lady also had a ymail acct. longwoodstephanie@***.com. the victims claimed to have only spoke on 800 numbers, as did i. there extensions were 901, mine was 909. the adress on their contracts were from southern california, so was mine. i belive this southern financial is loan mart, now. as of 2009. i am trying to do everything i can to help, the victims and new victims to come, like myself. as of now they still return my calls, as i am a potential client. they sent me an approval letter today, for us to offer on homes with. and on this letter it stated the financer who would hold our loan, besides the LM loan mart company. this company is called california empire bancorp. i immidiatly looked them up, on the BBB website. and found them to have an F rating, and also an inactive license with the DRE. i called the phone number on the page, disconnected. i clicked the link to the website, gone. this company definitly did NOT approve me for a loan. they are out of buisness. and this loan mart lady sent me an approval letter with their name on it. who knows maybe loan mart is a reputable company and these cons are like hackers. or somene who used to work there who have had access to contracts and approval letters. i dont know. but here is the info i have: LM loan mart, owner alex carney stephanie longwood- my loan lady her email is longwoodstephanie@***.com 186**** ext 909 office is 949448**** but they never ever answer and no machine website she gave me is www.online-loanmart.com adress on contract is 22982 la cadena, suite 225,laguna hills,ca92653 (i have also seen the suite number as 101 on a different website not given to me by her dre license number 0105**** Federal Mortgage Broker License# 4264 Loan Broker Registration# 97-0798LB Residential Mortgage Lender License# RML 109-0, RML 179-**** (EP) Loan Broker License# 9905**** LB please help! they need to be stopped!