A Timonium firm is being fined $11,000 for "misleading advertising" about Federal Housing Administration mortgages, the federal government said.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees FHA, said this week that its mortgagee review board found two problems with Great Oak Lending Partners' direct-mail ads. The Baltimore County company suggested that FHA's reverse mortgage was a government benefits program such as Social Security, rather than a government insurance program that allows seniors to use the equity they built up in their homes, HUD said. The agency said the company also used a facsimile of HUD's seal and a Washington post office box in ads to imply that it had been endorsed by the federal government, rather than simply authorized to lend FHA products.

Joshua B. Shein, Great Oak Lending Partners' managing partner, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

In addition to the fine, the company will have to forward its advertising to FHA for monthly reviews during a six-month probation, HUD said. Great Oak Lending Partners can appeal the decision.

The action was one of several announced Tuesday. The mortgagee review board put another company on probation for misleading advertising practices, fining the Rhode Island firm $7,000. It also permanently withdrew FHA lending approval from three out-of-state companies and suspended approval for a fourth.

HUD called the sanctions a sign of its intention to more aggressively go after lenders who aren't following the rules. Use of mortgages insured by FHA ballooned after the subprime-lending industry collapsed, and money the agency set aside to deal with the expense of foreclosures is dwindling. When HUD announced changes in borrower requirements last week to shore up the program, it also promised to increase enforcement.