Quarterly reports of mortgage fraud grew, but most of the activity involved under $500,000. Borrowers were the culprits in more than half of the filings.
The number of suspicious activity reports involving mortgage fraud filed during the third-quarter 2010 was 16,693, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network reported Thursday.
SARs filings edged up from 16,339 in the third-quarter a year earlier.
During the first nine months of 2010, filings amounted to 51,828.
Mortgage fraud was involved in 9 percent of all of the 175,717 SARs filed in the most recent quarter.
Of the filings tied to mortgage fraud, four-out-of-five involved less than $500,000.
More than half of subjects identified in third-quarter SARs were borrowers.
