PITTSBURGH -- (March 2, 2007) -- The combination of a cooling in the housing market, increases in interest rates and lax policies have all contributed to the significant increase in mortgage and real estate fraud. A recent report produced by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network stated suspicious activity reports pertaining to mortgage loan fraud increased by 1,411 percent between 1997 and 2005. This trend continued in 2006 with 7,093 reports filed on suspected mortgage loan fraud during the first quarter. This represents an increase of 35 percent over the same time-period of the previous year. Professionals in the lending and real estate industries must become aware of the techniques used to perpetrate mortgage fraud. That is why Spy-Ops (www.spy-ops.com) in conjunction with the Technolytics (www.technolytics.com) institute have just released two special training programs on mortgage fraud. Building upon their anti-money laundering and tracking terrorist financing training programs, the mortgage fraud identifies 18 common techniques used to defraud lenders and provides a fraud checklist to professionals who are involved in real estate sales or lending.

SOURCE: Technolytics