Suspicious activity reports that indicate possible mortgage loan fraud increased 2 percent to 16,693 in the third quarter of 2010 according to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
The total number of SARs for all categories also increased 2 percent to 175,717 during the third quarter, up from 172,125 in 2009. In all, 9 percent of SARs filed in the 2010 third quarter indicated mortgage fraud as an activity characterization, the same percentage reported in the third quarter of 2009.
“FinCEN is regularly pulling together, analyzing and releasing valuable data on mortgage fraud that serves as another tool to fight scammers and mortgage fraud,” said FinCEN Director James H. Freis, Jr. “This report contains new information on reported suspicious activities based on location, types of scams, and other trends that can help law enforcement to further investigate mortgage loan fraud.”
According to the report, more than 80 percent of mortgage loan fraud SARs involved amounts under $500,000.
California and Florida had the highest number of subjects, followed by New York and Illinois. Based on subjects per capita, Florida and California switched places in the first and second place rankings, while Nevada and Arizona replaced New York and Illinois as third and fourth highest per capita.
Below is a graph of where the most SARs were filed.
To view the full report, see here.
