Mortgage Fraud Is Booming Crime Across Canada

Mortgage fraud occurs in two ways.

• The first, involves individuals fabricating their qualifications for a mortgage when buying a house.
• The second involves fraud for profit where someone intentionally defrauds a lender or a homeowner of their interest in a property.

The latter is often accomplished by identity theft. Ownership of a property is transferred fraudulently from the rightful owner to the criminal who then sells or mortgages that interest and makes off with the funds. The problem is becoming more prevalent as technology makes it easier to falsify documents and create identities, say experts in the field.