MortgageFraud

A man who dressed up as his mother in a bizarre real estate fraud that involved doctoring her death certificate and cashing her Social Security checks for six years after she died was sentenced Monday to more than 13 years behind bars.

A spin-off group from Occupy Wall Street, called Occupy Our Homes, has formed to reverse and stop foreclosures. Lately, the group has been using creative tactics to raise awareness about the banking practices that led to the housing bubble.

Taking a cue from more high-end swindlers, a slew of violent gangs, including the Bloods, the Crips and the Latin Kings are branching out into mortgage fraud, identity theft, check counterfeiting and bank fraud, among other crimes.

This week brought a bit of good news for some troubled homeowners in the form of two separate settlement activities. The FTC has begun mailing refund checks to 450,000 Countrywide customers, and Wells Fargo reached an $85 million settlement with the Fed that will provide relief to up to 10,000 customers.

Desperation is powerful fodder for scams and a troubled and problem-plagued federal loan modification program offers added opportunity for scamming. So it comes as no surprise that the New Jersey company that reached a settlement this week with the Idaho attorney general's office after being...

There is something about human nature that when times get tough, crooks get more bold. Such is the case with mortgage-related fraud. The FBI is reporting that there is an estimated 276% leap in mortgage-related fraud cases over last year. The agency is keeping tabs on more than 174,000 new...

The collapse of the real estate market has brought to light a lot of nefarious activity that might have gone unchecked had home prices continued to rise.And for whatever reason, more than a few retired professional athletes are getting caught up in it. Take a look: Earlier this month, former...

A new study released by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute found that reports of mortgage fraud rose 26% in 2008, even as loan dollar volume fell by about one-third.Foreclosure-related fraud schemes are on the rise, which is no surprise given that enormous increase in distressed home owners.USA...

Sure, all mortgage scams are sleazy, but this one seems particularly evil.According to a story in a recent newsletter put out by Identity Theft 911, a company aimed at helping individuals and institutions from being victims of identity theft, one of the latest scams involves a "foreclosure expert"...

The FBI says that 2008 is shaping up to be a "record year" for mortgage fraud, with nearly 30,000 "suspicious activity reports" filed in the first half, compared with 46,000 for all of 2007.According to the New York Times, "the biggest surge in federal law enforcement activity has focused on "fraud...