The number of reported mortgage fraud cases has climbed so quickly that U.S. federal investigators and prosecutors say they can't keep pace.Since 2005, reports of suspected mortgage fraud doubled. So far this year, banks filed 47,717 reports, compared with 21,994 two years ago, The New York Times reported Tuesday, citing statistics from the FBI and the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.Mortgage fraud includes crimes such as false statements on mortgage applications and convoluted "flipping" schemes involving multiple properties, phony buyers, title companies and corrupt appraisers.
"I don't think any law enforcement agency can keep up with mortgage fraud, because it's such a growth industry," Chuck Cross, vice president of mortgage regulatory policy for the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, told the Times. "There's too many cases, not enough agents."

Losses involving federally insured banks totaled $813 million this fiscal year, more than two times the $293 million lost in the 2002 fiscal year, officials said.

The Mortgage Bankers Association called the losses "the tip of the iceberg" because they do not include mortgage brokers, who arrange better than half of new mortgages. The industry estimates the total loss this year at $4 billion.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

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