Five Reasons It’s Difficult to Spot Mortgage Fraud

Is there a mortgage relief program for 2021?

In recent years, there have been many forms of lending. Perhaps best known is HARP, which has helped many debtors to keep their homes afloat. Today, homeowners can get temporary help through the COVID Congress program. But what if you need more frequent credit help – lower payments in the end? Fortunately, he has options. HIRO’s Fannie Mae program and Freddie Mac’s Enhanced Relief Refinancing are very helpful to homeowners to support those with or without housing.

Mortgage fraud is a relatively uncommon occurrence. Material misrepresentations are found in less than 1% of mortgage applications. The majority of them fall under the category of property fraud, which involves a borrower misrepresenting their income, assets, or liabilities to qualify for a mortgage. More sophisticated fraud operations, such as fraud for profit, frequently enlist the help of multiple people, including appraisers, loan officials, and straw buyers, and are even rarer. However, the potential for substantial losses, especially when it comes to profit-driven fraud, makes fraud a significant issue.

Many mortgage scams go unnoticed. Borrowers who committed fraud-for-property can undoubtedly stay current on their debts in a strong economy with rising home prices. Fraud-for-property loans are more likely to default as the economy slows or housing values reach a ceiling and enter a correction phase. The challenge in detecting these loans as fraudulent is that they are most likely viewed as a credit loss in loss mitigation rather than fraud.

Mortgage fraud can be cyclical in nature. Some of the more typical flaws leading up to the housing crisis were falsified down payment sources, overstated income, and straw buyers. After millions of homes were foreclosed on, fraudsters turned to loss mitigation techniques like short sales, REO bid-rigging, and loan modification scams. Fraud evolves in response to market conditions and current opportunities.

Nobody enjoys airing their dirty linen. Financial organizations are wary of disclosing information about operational fraud difficulties when it is an “inside job.” Insider fraud involving employees or agents can highly damage your company’s reputation. Senior executives may be unaware of the problems because the attorney-client privilege may protect internal investigations.

It can take a long time for fraud activity to be discovered. Other sorts of consumer fraud are “rapid-moving,” with stolen credit cards virtually always being utilized right afterward. In most cases, check to kite is identified within a few days. Mortgage fraud is far more subtle. Sophisticated schemes use techniques like delaying detection, making payments to keep mortgages current, and even ensuring that false employment verification requests are appropriately handled. As a result, the scheme can continue.

When it comes to mortgage fraud, it’s easy to get a false sense of security. The truth is that financial institutions are always at risk of fraud. It evolves over time and maybe works just in front of your eyes. Loss protection necessitates learning more about different types of fraud and implementing a continuous strategy to monitor your operations. In my next couple of posts, I’ll go through current industry trends and potential best practices in greater detail. Until then, stay careful and vigilant.

Mortgage fraud is becoming more challenging to commit; we hear it all the time in the mortgage sector. That is to say, classic methods of mortgage fraud are getting more challenging to commit, significantly as technology and borrower information verification improves.

Despite these advancements, fraudsters are fast to adapt and continually look for new ways to circumvent the mortgage industry’s efforts to protect lenders and borrowers. And history indicates that they will be successful in some of their endeavors. As a result, we must maintain vigilance.

Mortgage Fraud: What You Should Know
With the rise in fraud risk, there is a more significant requirement for employees on the front lines of detection to better grasp fraud. You can discover and report numerous sorts of fraud as a loan officer, loan processor, or underwriter.

Several elements, including: define mortgage fraud.

• Falsification of documents or the submission of false information
• Document alteration/forgery
• Failure of the loan officer, processor, or underwriter to disclose information could negatively impact the decision.
• Theft of one’s identity
• Due diligence failure on the part of loan officers or anyone involved in the process
• Acceptance of shady or incorrect information
• Current occupancy is not accurately represented.

You Should Be Aware of the Different Types of Mortgage Fraud
While there are numerous sorts of mortgage fraud to be wary of, there are three that are particularly prevalent in today’s market.

Fraudulent Occupancy
When borrowers misrepresent how the purchase property will be inhabited, this is known as occupancy fraud. Underwriting standards and mortgage rates, MI rates, and eligible programs vary depending on whether the property will be used as a primary house, a second home, or an investment property. Reverse occupancy fraud (see Fannie Mae’s advice page) is one of the most common types of mortgage fraud. Buyers claim to use the purchase property as an investment property and use the rental income as projected income to qualify for the loan. In reality, the buyer lives in the house as their primary residence.

Income Theft
When a borrower misrepresents the availability, continuity, amount, or source of income utilized to qualify, this is known as income fraud. False reported income and misrepresentation of work are two prevalent income fraud tactics.

False reported income (as defined by Freddie Mac) arises when income information on Form 65 (Uniform Loan Application) isn’t verified thoroughly. The borrower may or may not know that their income has been falsified.

In recent years, misrepresentation of employment (see Fannie Mae’s tip sheet) has been a common technique in California. Borrowers are asked to provide phony employment documents and pay stubs from bogus employers as part of this plan.

Look for disparities between borrowers’ age/experience and their declared title and income as red flags. Other red flags include the prior occupation of “student,” the employer does not exist/the company’s location is unknown, or the submitted paystub seems similar to others in other loan files.

Fraudulent Transactions
This sort of fraud occurs when the nature of a transaction is misrepresented. When a buyer and seller have concealed agreements or down payment is fabricated, this can happen. Non-length arm’s transactions and straw buyers are two examples.

Straw buyers (see Fannie Mae’s fraud characteristics page) operate only on behalf of the genuine buyer. Once the straw buyer has completed the deal, the property title is transferred to the true buyer. The genuine buyer may have terrible credit or be concealing other circumstances that would make them ineligible for a mortgage.

Red flags include the fact that the mortgage payments are made by an entity rather than the borrower, the lack of a real estate agent, no connection with the buyer, and the transfer of the property owner after the sale.