The 2007 FBI Mortgage Fraud report explains how an unscrupulous real estate developer commits mortgage fraud with a seller in a builder bailout scheme.
Say the developer built a house that normally sells for $200,000.  In a declining market, the builder fears a fair market sale will not cover the bridge loan for construction costs.  The [...]

The official FBI.gov website contains a 2007 study on mortgage fraud schemes.  The FBI explains how a perpetrator conspires with a property buyer to commit short sale fraud.
The perpetrator of this scheme finds a buyer for a piece of property.  The buyer obtains a 100 per cent loan, and if possible attempts to borrow extra [...]

The 2007 FBI Mortgage Fraud Report, appears on the official United States government FBI website.  This report details, in four illustrated steps, how an illegal property flipping scheme works.
First, a property flipper buys a house for a low price, in this case $20,000.
Next, the flipper purchases a fraudulent appraisal of the property for a much [...]

The FBI website contains an April 2008 warning about identity theft and Home Equity Line of Credit loans.  The warning details findings from a 2007 FBI study of fraud in the mortgage and real estate industry.  The FBI believes thieves steal a person’s identity to either open a new line of credit over the internet [...]

When your mortgage company begins the foreclosure process, they file what is called a “lis pendens” (Latin for “lawsuit pending”) with the county clerk’s office.  This puts the public on notice that they are intending to foreclose on your home.  In many areas of the country, you will start receiving mail from a variety of people [...]

Three red flags signaling possible reverse mortgage fraud are 1) pressuring a homeowner to take out a reverse mortgage for financial products, a vacation or home repairs; 2) claims that a reverse mortgage is a government grant that does not have to be repaid; and 3) Claims that a borrower cannot outlive the reverse mortgage [...]

I took a look at the FBI website and right there next to the most wanted photo of Usama Bin Laden I learned the FBI estimates mortgage fraud losses between $4 Billion to $6 Billion annually.  Such losses raise mortgage fraud to a high investigative priority at the Bureau.
The FBI focuses on three primary types [...]

It should come as no surprise that the number of house fires have increased greatly over the last year.  Whether it is homeowners trying to save on the high cost of home heating from last winter or homeless occupying vacant homes, or the victims of ‘mischief night‘, fire departments have been kept busy recently.  However, [...]

According to a recent report by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute, mortgage fraud nationwide jumped 42 percent in the first quarter of 2008, with Florida reporting the highest number of cases.  Florida accounted for 24 percent of all material misrepresentations for loans originated during the first quarter of 2008, according to the institute’s press release.
California is [...]

Foreclosure defense attorneys are becoming increasingly frustrated by the dismal foreclosure statistics and are seeking help from our nation’s criminal prosecutors to investigate the possibility of bringing “foreclosure mills” and banks to justice under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
Usually, when we hear terms like “organized crime” and “RICO,” we think of Tony Soprano [...]