Mortgage Fraud Reports Up Sharply Last Year

Charleston Post and Courier (SC) (04/04/08)
According to U.S. Treasury Department data announced on Thursday, reports of suspected mortgage fraud increased 42 percent in 2007 as banks became increasingly leery of untrue information on loan applications. In total, there were 52,868 reports last year. Misrepresentation of income or assets was the most common type of fraud. That was followed by forged documents, misrepresentation of a borrower's intent to live in a property as a primary residence, occupancy fraud and inflated appraisals.