Mortgage fraud adds up to billions in losses

Foreclosure fraud is still a problem, and Georgia is one of the leading states suffering from it, according to the FBI. The agency says:

Estimated annual losses due to mortgage fraud nationally are $10 billion-plus (Source: CoreLogic).

There were 80,549 reports of suspicious activity in mortgages as of July of this year, representing more than $3.2 billion in losses.

The FBI has 92 mortgage fraud task forces.

It has 2,872 pending investigations, with 72 percent of them involving losses of more than $1 million each.

The FBI opened 245 cases so far this year, and 446 in 2010.

In 2011, the investigations led to 946 indictments and 854 convictions.

Other state leaders in mortgage fraud include Florida, California, Arizona, Nevada, Illinois, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland (Source: Mortgage Asset Research Institute).

Nearly half of fraud cases involve misreported income, employment and assets in the loan process.

About the Author

Christopher Quinn

Christopher Quinn is a writer and editor who has worked for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 1999. He writes stories on Veterans Affairs, business including high-tech growth in metro Atlanta, Georgia's $72 billion farm economy, and he oversees assigning and editing news obituaries.

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