Mortgage fraud rises 50%

A credit checking company have uncovered a number of thieves attempting to commit fraud with mortgage application

Experian uncovered a number of fraudulent applications and have said that in many cases fraudsters have hacked databases or intercepted emails between people and their solicitors in a bid to divert payments.

These payments can often be huge sums of money such as deposits.

These criminals will pretend to be a solicitor to trick innocent future homeowners into diverting cash into their account. Even worse, some fraudsters are also using the details of people who have passed away to make bogus mortgage applications.

Nick Mothershaw, a fraud expert at Experian, said “The increase from 4 to 6% is worrying because of the values involved, the impact on people’s lives can be devastating. In many cases, fraudsters have either hacked databases or intercepted emails between individuals and their solicitors. Large payments have been diverted and fraudsters have disappeared with the money. We’d urge anyone who has fallen victim to these kinds of scams to contact Action Fraud .”

Have you ever fell for something like this?

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