Personal Finance Buzz

A law office is advertising its mortgage modification service on a local radio station. If its lawyers aren't successful with a single phone call made while you wait, the ad proclaims, you don't have to pay the office's $995 fee.

Here's the problem: There's no way to get a mortgage modification with a single phone call. The process takes months, and you have to submit tons of paperwork. The most a single phone call can do is get you started with an application -- and that you can do, on your own, for free.