New Concept in Mortgage Fraud Control
The Globe and Mail reports, on December 12 2006, that Mortgage fraud 'epidemic,' Toronto Fraud conference told.
"Canada is becoming a global trendsetter in the burgeoning business of mortgage fraud, say law-enforcement experts and investigators gathered this week at an international crime conference in Toronto.
"[Mortgage fraud] is an absolute epidemic, a huge problem in the developed countries, especially here in Canada," said Chris Mathers, a crime- and risk-management expert who is taking part in the International Fraud Investigators Conference. "And I don't see it changing any time soon."
At the conference, police officers, detectives, consumer specialists and consultants from around the world will spend the next four days addressing the world's most pressing fraud issues and exploring ways to tackle them.
Mr. Mathers says government must make changes in their approach to mortgage fraud, but that will not likely happen until banks complain." (my emphasis)
Although the Ontario Government has passed new legislation regarding mortgages, which means every opinion as to title will be qualified, I doubt that this will stem the problem.
Mortgage fraud is a sophisticated form of personal identity theft. The criminal steals the identity of the homeowner, and then proceeds to deal with the property as if it was the criminals.
The technical solution, which would slow down easy forms of mortgage fraud, is for there to be a driver's license picture on the homeowner's title, mortgage documents and other documents. This would mean that simple identity theft would not give rise to mortgage fraud. More would have to be done to defraud the homeowner.
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