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Rise in Mortgage Fraud May Reach Crescendo This Year, Fraud Experts Say
By Matt Squire
printMortgage fraud cases skyrocketed during the real estate boom of the past decade, and the problem is likely to get worse this year, fraud experts say. The number of suspicious activity reports (SARs) related to mortgage fraud submitted to regulators rose nearly 22-fold to 37,313 in 2006 from 1,720 in 1997, according to data released by the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crime Enforcement Network. The rise was particularly acute last year, when FinCEN expected 28,372 SARs would be filed. Arthur Prieston, chief executive officer of PBIS Insurance Services Inc., which provides fraud insurance for more than $50 billion in residential...
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