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Mortgage Fraud Reports by Banks Up 31 Percent, Says FBI

By Matt Squire

Financial institutions filed 46,717 suspicious activity reports about potential mortgage fraud in fiscal year 2007, a 31 percent increase in the reports from the previous year, the FBI said Tuesday. The increase coincides with a 47 percent jump since 2006 and a 176 percent jump since 2003 in the number of mortgage fraud cases the agency is reviewing, the FBI said in a report. The agency said that the subprime lending crisis contributed to the upward swing in the over 1,200 cases now under review. While only seven percent of the suspicious activity reports (SARs) related to mortgage fraud that...

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