Avoid Mortgage Fraud

A common form of identity theft that most people don’t even necessarily know that they should worry about is mortgage fraud. Mortgage fraud is where a thief uses the information regarding your mortgage against you to do things like take out loans or put another mortgage on your house, ruining your credit rating, and netting them a bunch of cash that they get to steal.   Mortgage fraud can be extraordinarily damaging to your long term credit if not dealt with correctly, and can even cause you to default on your home or car loans.  But there are plenty of things you can do to lower your chances of becoming a victim of mortgage fraud.

First off you have to understand that anybody actually attempting to benefit from using a mortgage scam against you has to be an insider, likely within a real estate company.  So likely any identity thief is going to be extremely well prepared in their attempts to scam you and convince you that any information you unwittingly hand over to them is completely legitimate.  Which means the number one rule to avoiding mortgage theft is to never divulge any information unless you absolutely have to, and never give any mortgage info to anybody you don’t trust.

Now that you know that most mortgage identity theft comes from within the system, there are a few precautions you should take to be aware of when a possible scam could arise.  Such as your real estate broker making a suggestion as to which lender you use for the mortgage on your house.  Your broker shouldn’t have really any involvement in how you finance your mortgage, or who you choose to go through to finance that mortgage.  Be wary of any broker that tries to suggest anything of the sort, as that could be a red flag as to a looming scam.

More things to be wary of are lenders that try to get you to borrow more than you need, as this is usually a shady practice akin to predatory lending.  Anybody willing to practice such tactics is definitely not trustworthy for your personal information.  And finally, be sure you receive copies of every document you sign with your lender or broker, as once again it’s a red flag that something could be going on involving a scam.