Potential mortgage fraud reports recorded in 2010 and 2011 accounted for 37% of all suspicious mortgage-related activity filings in the past decade, the Treasury department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said in a new study.
Between the years 2010 and 2011, suspicious activity reports citing potential mortgage fraud shot up 31%, hitting 92,028 filings in 2011, compared to 70,472 in 2010.
Suspected mortgage fraud is now the most popular subject for a SAR, outstripping suspected check fraud for the number one spot.
The sixth set of bars on the following SARs activity bar graph report show just how much mortgage suspicious activity reports jumped between the years 2010 (the yellow bar) and 2011 (blue bar).
FinCen suggested the recent two-year spike in fraud reports is directly tied to mortgage repurchase demands filed by financial firms that are now questioning the initial underwriting and other issues associated with the original mortgage.
kpanchuk@housingwire.com
