{"id":491,"date":"2010-06-25T23:35:44","date_gmt":"2010-06-25T23:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jabcstudio.com\/lmgw\/?p=491"},"modified":"2010-06-28T16:17:14","modified_gmt":"2010-06-28T16:17:14","slug":"loan-mod-foreclosure-scams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lmgw.com\/wordpress\/news\/loan-mod-foreclosure-scams\/","title":{"rendered":"Loan Modification and Foreclosure Rescue Scams – Report from TIGTA"},"content":{"rendered":"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
\nJune 17, 2010<\/p>\n

FinCEN Analysis: Foreclosure Rescue Scam Reports Increase
\nNature of Foreclosure Rescue Scams Shifts<\/p>\n

VIENNA, Va. – The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) today
\nreleased its first analysis of suspicious activity reports (SARs) containing
\ninformation about potential foreclosure rescue scams. The report,
\n<http:\/\/www.fincen.gov\/news_room\/rp\/files\/MLFLoanMODForeclosure.pdf<\/a>> Loan
\nModification and Foreclosure Rescue Scams – Evolving Trends and Patterns in
\nBank Secrecy Act Reporting , involved an analysis of more than 3,500 SARs
\nfiled from 2004 through 2009, of which the great majority, 3,000, were filed
\nlast year. Additionally, FinCEN today also provided updated guidance
\n<http:\/\/www.fincen.gov\/statutes_regs\/guidance\/html\/fin-2010-a006.html<\/a>> to
\nthe financial industry concerning new scam techniques that financial
\nprofessionals should watch for and report. <\/p>\n

“The increase in reporting of suspected foreclosure rescue scam activity
\ncould mean that there is an increase in fraudulent activity but it also
\nreflects an increase in awareness among financial institutions of the fraud
\nperpetrated,” said FinCEN Director James H. Freis, Jr. “This report
\nemphasizes the importance of including the specific term ‘foreclosure rescue
\nscam’ in the SAR narrative to enable law enforcement to search for and
\nidentify fraudulent activity more easily when reviewing SAR information,
\nwhich assists in focusing investigative resources and ultimately reducing
\nthese scams.”<\/p>\n

In addition to the increase in reported activity, the analysis shows that
\nthe nature of foreclosure rescue scams had shifted during the period
\nexamined in the study. Early SARs containing information about loan
\nmodification\/foreclosure rescue scams identified subjects purporting to be
\nloan modification or foreclosure rescue specialists. These subjects targeted
\nfinancially troubled homeowners with promises of assistance. The scams
\ninvolved the homeowners signing quit claim deeds, and resulted in loss of
\nequity in or title to their property. The scammers used straw borrowers, who
\nmisrepresented income, employment, or occupancy, or provided other
\nfraudulent information to deceive a new lender into making a new mortgage
\nloan.<\/p>\n

The scams described in later SARs and analyzed in this report, reflect an
\nevolution into advance fee schemes, in which purported loan modification or
\nforeclosure rescue specialists promised to arrange modification of a
\nhomeowner’s mortgage for more favorable repayment terms. Following receipt
\nof large advance fees, scammers rarely, if ever, provided any service. A
\nvariation of the advance fee scam involved phony debt elimination programs
\nin which the homeowners paid advance fees and were given bogus documents, or
\nwere instructed to contact their lenders with specious assertions that the
\noriginal mortgage debt was illegal.<\/p>\n

The top ten metropolitan regions, ranked by the concentration of local
\nsubjects of all mortgage loan fraud SARs reported between January 1, 2009
\nand June 10, 2010, are as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Location<\/strong><\/td>\nSubjects<\/strong><\/td>\nRank<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL<\/td>\n5,029<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA<\/td>\n4,839<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA<\/td>\n3,447<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL-IN-WI<\/td>\n2,973<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV<\/td>\n1,848<\/td>\n5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA<\/td>\n1,791<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ<\/td>\n1,674<\/td>\n7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA<\/td>\n1,667<\/td>\n8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA<\/strong><\/td>\n1,364<\/strong><\/td>\n9<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Orlando-Kissimmee, FL<\/td>\n1,326<\/td>\n10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Due to its national and international networking and coordination mission,
\nFinCEN is actively involved with a number of initiatives that focus on
\ncombating mortgage fraud and ensure that financial institutions are not used
\nas conduits for illicit activity. Among its initiatives is an April 2009
\nFinCEN advisory, updated today, to provide indicators, or red flags, of loan
\nmodification and foreclosure rescue fraud, and request that filers who
\nbecome aware of this type of activity include the term “foreclosure rescue
\nscam” in the SAR’s narrative section to assist law enforcement in
\nidentifying applicable reports.<\/p>\n

Today’s report supports the efforts of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task
\nForce (FFETF), established by President Obama in November 2009 to wage an
\naggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute
\nfinancial crimes. Additionally, FinCEN efforts are being further developed
\nas part of the FFETF anti-mortgage fraud initiative to provide not only
\ninformation sharing based on SAR data, but also to support law enforcement
\ninvestigations and prosecutions. FFETF is composed of representatives from a
\nbroad range of Federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general,
\nand State and local law enforcement, and is the broadest coalition of law
\nenforcement, investigatory and regulatory agencies ever assembled to combat
\nfraud. FinCEN has been actively involved in these efforts, as Suspicious
\nActivity Reports are one of the best sources of lead information for law
\nenforcement in fighting financial crime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 17, 2010 FinCEN Analysis: Foreclosure Rescue Scam Reports Increase Nature of Foreclosure Rescue Scams Shifts VIENNA, Va. – The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) today released its first analysis of suspicious activity reports (SARs) containing information about potential foreclosure rescue scams. The report, <http:\/\/www.fincen.gov\/news_room\/rp\/files\/MLFLoanMODForeclosure.pdf> Loan Modification and Foreclosure Rescue Scams – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lmgw.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lmgw.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lmgw.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lmgw.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lmgw.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lmgw.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":716,"href":"https:\/\/lmgw.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions\/716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lmgw.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lmgw.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lmgw.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}