Mortgage Fraud And Its Impact On Mortgage Lenders

I am going to talk about my experiences at accredited home lenders where I was underwriting sub prime mortgages and the crazy and insane lending that I saw, things that will really shock and make you realize why we are in a complete financial mess. I will also talk about the mortgage broker world and how they made money along with the kinds of fraudulent practices that were everywhere, I will also talk about how lenders just looked the other way and funded the loans that are in default now.

Written for mortgage underwriters, mortgage managers, mortgage aggregators, mortgage brokers, lenders mortgage insurers, title insurers, lendersoÂeÂ(tm) and borrowersoÂeÂ(tm) solicitors and valuers, it covers the essential elements in the detection of mortgage fraud in Australia. Mortgage fraud is on the rise as a result of the demystification of the mortgage lending process together with the digital dispersal of this information. At the same time, the means to commit fraud has become ever more widespread. In the last 10 years electronic bank statements, spreadsheets, graphics programs, high-resolution colour scanners and printers, disposable mobile phones, websites and social networking, have each enhanced the ability of fraudsters to steal or create identities, accurately falsify documents, and even fabricate fictitious people. In addition to the rise of fraud, the last 10 years have also seen a decline of the protection rendered to lenders by the Torrens system. Avoiding Mortgage Fraud in Australia: Toolkit for Mortgage Professionals looks at tactics such as using false websites, false people, false employers, false companies and false certificates of title, and the due diligence required to expose these falsities. Various fraudster strategies including Imposter Fraud, Settlement Fraud and Valuation fraud are then methodically examined. The book describes multiple frauds with references to reported decisions, newspaper articles and ASIC press releases. In addition, case studies are used throughout to highlight the fraud in action. This book is indispensable for those working in the mortgage field. Features oÂeo Written in plain English oÂeo Ready reference and practical guide to avoiding mortgage fraud in Australia oÂeo Comprehensive overview of the tactics and strategies used by fraudsters Related Titles Bransgrove & Young, The Essential Guide to Mortgage Law in Australia, 2nd edition, 2013 Croft & Hay, The MortgageeoÂeÂ(tm)s Power of Sale, 3rd edition, 2012 Tyler, Young & Croft,Fisher & LightwoodoÂeÂ(tm)s Law of Mortgage, 3rd edition, 2013

I wrote this book in 11/05 and who could imagine Mortgage Fraud reaching record high levels in 2008 & 2009! My book is written like it is today, the fraud schemes have changed slightly although the motives are the same! Once a white-collar criminal gets away with fraud, the process quickly becomes addictive. Success breeds more success, and before long such crafters of fraudulent mortgage loans clearly begin feeling that not only are they above the law but in fact, they are not doing anything wrong in the first place. Fraud can happen to anyone: loan officers, processors, underwriters, buyers, sellers, investors, owners, and management of mortgage companies. It can happen anywhere: big cities, small towns, storied and well-recognized firms, smaller mom, and pop businesses who just want to do the right thing for a would be homeowner or just have the need to make money. The Treasury Department provided a plan to collaborate with private funds to buy up to $1 trillion of "toxic assets." It is very unclear if these purchases will include foreclosed properties. The unlisted and unsold foreclosed homes are likely to further delay the recovery and destabilize lenders' financials further or increase the dollars needed to include the foreclosed properties. RealtyTrac states lenders may be holding up to 700,000 residential properties that are not on listed for sale yet, foreclosure properties. This supply of homes are not counted as part of the housing inventory, with 3.8 million existing homes for sale in February which is almost a year's supply of homes for sale. The foreclosure rates have remained somewhat the same recently although it could be due to government moratoriums or voluntary lender halts on foreclosures, however, eventually a large percentage of those homes will end up being foreclosed on. With that supply of existing home for sale homes and the foreclosed properties, values are going to fall further. When the foreclosed properties enter the market, the appraisals will negatively reflect values. Some of the positive news in February was that existing-home sales rose 5.1% and housing starts were up 22.2% from record lows. One of the issues surfacing is the so called specialists who are attempting to work a modification for borrowers are growing like springtime weeds most without the experience of needed to work the new programs or even understand the mortgage industry, thus fewer mortgages are actually being modified. Then there are the many new schemes these weeds (fraudsters) have developed preying on the homeowner once again. When the economy eventually picks up, many of these issues will not be as challenging to the lenders, and this leads to the concern of mortgage fraud. Mortgage Fraud continued to climb up by 26% in 2008, another record. The Suspicious Activity Reports (SARS) climbed by 44%, mortgage fraud which is the third most reported activity to Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) , Almost 900 filing institutions submitted mortgage loan fraud SARs and according to FinCEN, fewer than 200 institutions submitted 98% (60,800) of the total. The top 10 filing institutions submitted 57% (35,400) of these filings, compared to 30% for the top 10 filing institutions of all SARs. With fewer loan originations in the last year or so, some professionals reviewing the data may believe the increases are due to this very slow economy and shows signs of more desperation, causing more people than ever before to try to commit mortgage fraud. While that may have a some merit, mortgage fraud statistics point, clearly ,point to nothing short of an epidemic for over 5 years now or longer. Yet, really, what do we know about fraud? In fact, it is not what we know about fraud that is dangerous; it is what we do not know. What is worse is the staggering amount of opportunity with which the American real estate industry provides those who commit fraud. Clearly, the amount of money to be made in real estate both residential an

Nguyen examines mortgage fraud as an inherent part of the subprime mortgage crisis. He traces the exponential growth of mortgage fraud to the loose underwriting standards, alternative loan products, and inadequate regulation and regulatory oversight of the subprime mortgage industry. He describes the various financial crimes constituting mortgage origination fraud, a form of fraud involving fraud for profit, fraud for property, and predatory lending. The accounts of mortgage frauds by industry insiders presented in this book provide a chilling view of the criminal implications of an unregulated financial industry. Nguyen proposes several broad recommendations highlighting the need to recognize the potential for insider fraud, enhance government regulation and oversight, tighten loan qualification requirements, and increase standards of underwriting.

The fiasco that sank millions of Americans, including one journalist, who thought he knew better. A veteran New York Times economics reporter, Ed Andrews was intimately aware of the dangers posed by easy mortgages from fast-buck lenders. Yet, at the promise of a second chance at love, he succumbed to the temptation of subprime lending and became part of the economic catastrophe he was covering. In surprisingly short order, he amassed a staggering amount of debt and reached the edge of bankruptcy. In Busted, Andrew bluntly recounts his misadventures in mortgages and goes one step further to describe the brokers, lenders, Wall Street players, and Washington policymakers who helped bring that money to his door. The result is a penetrating and often acerbic look at the binge and bust that nearly bankrupted the United States. Enabled by know-nothing complacency in Washington, Wall Street wizards used "collateralized debt obligations," "conduits," and other inscrutable financial "innovations" to put American home financing into hyperdrive. Millions of Americans abandoned the safety of thirty-year, fixed-rate mortgages and loaded up on debt. While regulators insisted that the markets knew best, Wall Street firms fragmented and repackaged unsound loans into securities that the rating agencies stamped with triple-A seals of approval. Andrews describes a remarkably democratic debacle that made fools out of people up and down the financial food chain. From a confessional meeting with Alan Greenspan to a trek through the McMansion bubble of the OC, he maps the arc of the Frankenstein loans that brought the American economy to the brink. With on-the-ground reporting from the frothiest quarters of the crisis, Andrews locates what is likely to be the high-water mark in America's long-term embrace of higher borrowing, higher risk-taking, and the fervent belief in the possibility of easy profits.