Step right up folks and just let little old me pay off your pesky mortgage.

You say you're bothered by the constant need to re-pay your mortgage? I say, why bother? You need the money for other things? I understand. With my insider's knowledge and the sure-and-certain home loan payment guarantee program, in just a few months I'll pay off those jerk lenders who have the gall to want their money back. And to make this deal even better I'll help you get up to $250,000 in cash for life's little necessities.

Sounds good, eh?

Here's how this really worked -- and how some 3,000 borrowers got taken: In a settlement with Jeffrey Augugliaro, the New York state Attorney General's office found that:

"Using the website, brixdale.com, Augugliaro promised consumers that by allowing him to take control of the electronic transfers of their monthly mortgage payments, consumers could not only pay off an entire 30-year mortgage in full, but could also easily make a quarter of a million dollars, all in a matter of months. Nationwide, about 3,000 consumers signed up.

"The lawsuit alleged that the Brixdale scam was an illegal pyramid scheme, whereby consumers were encouraged to recruit others to sign up. Those new members, in turn, had to recruit new members to perpetuate the scheme. Consumers were lured into making 'extra' mortgage payments, but rather than making the mortgage payments as promised, Augugliaro siphoned off some of the funds himself and to pay commissions to others. As a result, hundreds of thousands of consumers' dollars were drained from the Brixdale account."

Under a consent decree, Augugliaro was ordered to pay more than $900,000 to victimized consumers.

I'm sure justice has been done, but forgive me -- my sympathy for the victims is limited.

I understand and agree that people make mistakes, that financial illiteracy is a serious problem and that innocent people get scammed. But is there any sense, logic, reason or reality involved in the idea that a 30-year mortgage can be repaid in a few months with regular payments? Or that as much as a quarter of a million dollars might also await lucky plan participants?

Did greed enter the picture at any time? If paying off a mortgage in a few months is so simple, why isn't everyone doing it? Has someone found a new branch of financial math? Did any participants have the sense that they were smarter than the rest of us?

The most unfortunate letters I get are from people who want to believe. They want to believe it's okay to make-up earnings and assets to get a stated-income loan. They want to believe real estate values always rise while interest rates never do. They want to believe that debt is an abstract concept and never a problem. They want to believe that inside, secret, dynamic real estate systems can make them wealthy by Thursday. They want to believe if they squeeze their eyes shut really tight, face north, stand on one leg and repeat magic words over and over that loan debts will vanish like the morning fog.

I don't mean to be harsh, but if I was in charge of the New York settlement I would not give most victims a dime. I would donate the money to charity, pave a road or buy books for schools. I would want to smack most victims with a dose of reality.

There has to come a point where common sense counts, reality cannot be suspended and we have to deal with the world as it is, not as we'd like it to exist.

If you disagree, that's okay. But stand behind your beliefs. Just send a check for your monthly mortgage payment and I'll take care of the rest. Honest ...

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