Alert: Georgia in top 10 for mortgage fraud

The FBI recently released its 2009 Mortgage Fraud Report. Georgia was one of the states with the highest amount of mortgage fraud according to law enforcement and industry data. The FBI considered factors such as the number of loan investigations by state, the number of reported misrepresentations during the loan process, the number of foreclosure filings, and the prevalence of debt elimination schemes.

Other states named included Illinois, California, Florida, Texas, New York, Maryland, Colorado, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

In related news at last week’s World Elder Abuse Awareness Day Scam Jam 2010 in Decatur, state Attorney General Thurbert Baker warned the audience of mortgage debt elimination scams. Baker said that some elderly owners become so financially desperate that they hand over the deed to their house to con artists claiming that they can help. Owners end up with their equity stolen in the process.

Atty. Gen. Thurbert Baker warns of fraud at Scam Jam

Potential scams should be reported to authorities such as the DeKalb district attorney, the DeKalb solicitor’s office, the Attorney General, or the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs.