2010 Mortgage Fraud Report of FBI
- Interthinx reports that property owners are fraudulently decreasing their income and property values to get their debt reduced for their loan modifications.29 They are fabricating hardships and filing false tax returns to this end. Also, individuals who first perpetrated fraud in loan origination are now attempting to defraud again during their loan modification.
- Freddie Mac reports that 2010 loan modification fraud trends include strategic defaults, which are accompanied by false statements about income, assets, or the homeowner’s inability to pay.30 Loan modification perpetrators are misrepresenting occupancy and income (by stating it is lower), altering pay stubs, and seeking modifications without an actual financial hardship.31
- HUD reported 2010 loan modification scams in the form of principal reduction scams, rent-to-own-leaseback, bankruptcy fraud, and false reconveyance.32 In addition, HUD reported that fraudsters are trolling unemployment offices, churches, and public foreclosure rescue fairs targeting vulnerable homeowners.
