Boom Fraud: Fraud in the Mortgage Market is on the Rise

While mortgage experts warn of the impending housing bubble, the housing market continues to boom. Like all hot markets, scammers can’t stay away when they get a shred of money. Mortgage industry researchers report that mortgage-based scams are on the rise and are defrauding Americans by the millions every year. The FBI estimates that they received 17,000 mortgage fraud incidents from lenders in the past year.

Let’s take a look at some of the mortgage scams out there:

1) Mortgage scams inflate the mortgage price of homes in and around Atlanta, ripping off homeowners nearly $20 million.

2) Scammers buy foreclosed homes at a reduced price. They then create fake appraised values ​​and then sell the homes using the fake appraised values.

3) Internet scammers solicit people with bad debts and have the owners sign their ownership documents through quitclaim deeds. The scammers tell homeowners to refinance their properties and then the loan proceeds are split between the homeowners and the scammers. In this case, the alleged perpetrators of this mortgage scam are being tried for these charges.

If you’re looking to refinance or get a home loan, buyers beware – mortgage scammers are out there. This is one of the reasons why it is so important to go with a reputable company, especially if you are considering a bad credit loan or a hard money loan. This subset of the mortgage industry has an above average number of sleazy characters. Be sure to read all documentation very carefully; it could be the most expensive decision you make!