The FBI has released the 2006 Report on Mortgage Fraud. It is released on the FBI webiste here and I have printed the pages to a PDF file here.

Statistics obtained fromThe Prieston Group are included in the report:

“The Prieston Group, a risk management solutions provider that administers an insurance product covering losses due to fraud and misrepresentation, calculated that losses attributed to mortgage fraud will most likely reach $4.2 billion for 2006. This figure does not take into account another estimated $1.2 billion spent on fraud prevention tools.”

The Prieston Group, 2006 Data, 16 February 2007,and 2 April 2007.

Report Highlights

An increase in foreclosure rescue scams.

An increase in fraud in HELOC loans.

Flipping fraud is reported to be the most common type of fraud, a fraud which required false appraisals and documents. The report shows a nice graphic describing such a scheme.

The top 10 states for mortgage fraud are reported as:
California
Georgia
Florida
Illinois
Indiana
Michigan
New York
Ohio
Texas
Utah

Pending Fraud Investigations are listed by the percentage of outstanding cases by region:
North Central = 31%
Southeast = 23%
West = 19%
South Central = 18%
Northeast 9%

Please use the links at the start of this entry to view the full, interesting, report.