Salt Lake City, UT / January 8, 2006 / Press Release / -- Consider the scenario that you are a young married couple seeking a bigger space to live.  Everywhere you look there is housing but housing that comes with a lot of problems. 

New fixtures are needed, kitchens are outdated and windows buckle at every hint of a blowing outside wind. 

After having spent numerous hours on the road, you and your family turn your efforts to the web.  You start looking for that dream home in a good neighborhood, with good schools and great community lifestyle. 

After a few days of searching you get an email in your box from one of the hundreds of websites you’ve recently been to that promised great rates and a greater loan amount than anyone else. 

The promise is too tempting to pass over.  Without hesitation you make the appointment and by this time tomorrow you’re sitting at the loan officer’s desk filling out the paperwork.

After review of your loan application, your loan officer tells you that you don’t make enough money to qualify for the loan that would get you the home of your dreams.  After a few minutes of quick conversation something is floated across the table. 

An IDEA.  

Create your own W-2 or 1099 from the comfort of your computer to increase your income. 

“What’s the worse that can happen – your loan is caught by the underwriter and the loan is denied.  C’mon everybody’s doing it.”

The IDEA may be scoffed at, at first.  But after the fifteenth or twentieth time of finding yourself rejected and unable to qualify for the home loan amount you need, the IDEA returns like a thief in the night.

But let's consider the option of creating your own qualifying document.

For starters, creating a forged document that is originated by the IRS  is a felony and falls under U.S. Code Title 18. 

Creating a document that boosts your income bracket so that you can obtain a home loan is definitely mortgage fraud. 

By doing either a person can be charged with a plethora of criminal charges most of which will be federally related, such as mail or wire fraud to mention a few.  

Mortgage lenders who learn of fraudulent activity routinely call the mortgage note due in full typically giving the borrower less than 45 days to make full restitution.

“We often see people that come to us in these type scenarios that say things like we’ll I didn’t know or I was a victim and it’s not true,” said Michael Blackburn, Operations Director for Perfect Home Living, based in West Valley City, Utah. 

“People who make the conscience decision to alter or fake documents to get their loan approved are no longer perceived as the victim but rather a conspirator, and suddenly you’re no more innocent than the one stop shops that put your deal together,” he added. 

In 2005 the FBI provided the following statistics when it came to its efforts to combat mortgage fraud:

For fiscal year 2005, the following stats are:

-  21,994 SARs were filed (up from 17,127 in Fiscal Year 2004).
-  721 pending FBI Mortgage Fraud cases (up from 534 in Fiscal Year 2004).
-  1,020 pending HUD-OIG Mortgage Fraud cases (up from 920 in Fiscal Year 2004).
-  206 FBI indictments/informations (down from 241 in Fiscal Year 2004).
-  170 FBI convictions (consistent with 172 convictions in Fiscal Year 2004)
-  $1,014,000,000 (FBI) reported loss (up from $429,000,000 in Fiscal Year 2004).

If you are a victim of mortgage fraud Perfect Home Living would like to hear from you, email us: fraudprevention@PerfectHomeLiving.com

About Perfect Home Living 

Perfect Home Living assists in implementing programs and providing training to financial lenders as well as educating Utah's consumers and licensed professionals to red flags within Utah's real estate market.   For more information or to request assistance please visit us online at:  http://www.PerfectHomeLiving.com