As lenders that are forced to buy back loans do their own investigations, the quarterly rate of mortgage fraud reports continues to grow. Most of the alleged crimes happened more than three years ago.
Suspicious activity reports tied to mortgage fraud that were filed by financial institutions during the second quarter totaled 29,558.
Filings increased from 25,485 SARs filed in the first three months of 2011.
During the second-quarter 2010, just 15,727 SARs were filed.
The data was reported Wednesday by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
The report indicated that 81 percent of second-quarter SARs filings were on mortgages originated prior to 2008. FinCEN said 63 percent of the reports involved suspicious activity that happened more than four years ago.
“A large majority of the mortgage loan fraud SARs examined in the second quarter involved mortgages closed during the height of the real estate bubble,” the report stated. “The upward spike in second quarter mortgage loan fraud SAR numbers is directly attributable to mortgage repurchase demands and special filings generated by several institutions.”
FinCEN Director James H. Freis Jr. noted in the announcement that financial institutions are uncovering the fraud as they sift through defaulted mortgages. He added that the agency continues to see ongoing mortgage fraud activity.
At the top of the list of fraudulent activity was the misrepresentation of income, occupancy or debts and assets. Also frequently observed were debt elimination scams and scams involving the fraudulent use of social security numbers.
