Verify, Verify, Verify. Ogden noted this is especially important in the case of income or employment verification fraud. There are a large number of schemes that fall under this heading, but the general rule is to watch for anomalies in documentation.
"Income, employment and asset verification fraud is much more prevalent in down times, because people are desperate," he explained. "Because there was such a boom, and values had increased so rapidly for so long, it hid a lot of fraud. People could just refinance if they were in trouble, and a lot of problems just went away. But now they can't."
Red flags include the employee's or company's name not being imprinted on a check, handwritten checks, paystubs or W-2s; typed W-2s with computer-generated paystubs, or a W-2 that is not the employee copy (Copy C).
"Also watch for income that is not consistent with a type of employment, or round numbers given for income or assets," Ogden warned.
