A report released today by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) shows that financial institutions filed 29,558 reports suspecting mortgage loan fraud activity during the 2nd quarter, an increase of 88 percent from the 2nd quarter of 2010 when there were 15,727 reports.
“We’re continuing to see a large number of SARs filed on activity that occurred more than two years ago, an indication that financial institutions are uncovering fraud as they sift through defaulted mortgages,” said FinCEN Director James H. Freis, Jr. “But we also continue to see indications of ongoing mortgage fraud activities. FinCEN’s report released today raises awareness of the common scams that homeowners and lenders may encounter when arranging or modifying home financing.”
The FinCEN report showed that misrepresenting income, occupancy, or debts and assets, followed by debt elimination scams and scams involving the fraudulent use of social security numbers, topped the types of suspicious activity reported by filers of MLF SARs. FinCEN examined a subset of quarterly filings that reported suspicious activity occurring within 90 days of filing, to better understand the latest trends in the reporting of suspected mortgage fraud.
California is #1 in Mortgage Loan Fraud Reports:
During the 2nd Quarter California was the state with the highest number of reports of suspected mortgage loan fraud activity, both in terms of overall volume as well as on a per-capita basis and Florida was number 2.
Source: FinCen
Los Angeles tops list of MSA’s for mortgage loan fraud reports:
Los Angeles, California, had the highest volume of mortgage loan fraud reports in 2nd quarter and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California was number on on a per capita basis.
Eleven of the top 20 counties for mortgage loan fraud reports were in California in 2nd quarter:
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