MORTGAGE FRAUD - FLORIDA GROUND ZERO
Filed Under Orlando Real Estate · Tagged: Florida mortgage fraud
A couple of blogs back, I was surprised to learn that Florida was only #8 in the country for foreclosures. Well Florida’s back! Because according to yesterdays FraudBlogger, we lead the nation in the amount of mortgage fraud-related activity. Phew. I feel restored.
Florida’s mortgage fraud surged $86 million from the second quarter to the third quarter with more than $293 million in mortgage fraud in the third quarter. The report further noted that some of the states with the most fraud activity also had the most foreclosures. No surprise there.
Nationwide, between July 1 and Sept. 30, there was 1.1 billion in active criminal and civil cases of mortgage fraud, down from $1.7 billion in the second quarter and $1.2 billion during the third quarter of last year.
“The decrease in mortgage fraud tracked during the third quarter reflected a second quarter surge resulting from stepped-up efforts by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice as part of Operation Malicious Mortgage,” said Sam Garcia, publisher of MortgageDaily.com, which publishes the mortgage fraud index.
California came in second, followed by Nevada, Minnesota, and Texas with a measly, $46.7 million.