Feedback: Detect Fraud Before It Happens

Re: Geithner Touts Fight vs. Mortgage Fraud [Sept. 18, 2009] While this is a worth while effort, consumers would have as much luck reading and understanding the new health care bill as they would reading and understanding the loan documents. I believe we need to have better information provided at the time of the loan application, especially concerning documents that the borrower will be signing.

Mortgage Fraud has been on the rise and if the present systems were working the suspicious activity reports would be going down not up. Solution: train loan officers to spot the telltale signs of deception during the application process or, as we like to call it, the "mortgage interview." The FBI and other government agencies are certainly aware of this type of training and it can be taught to those in the mortgage field as well. No water boarding, blindfolds or sleep deprivation. Just skilled observation techniques that can be used over and over again and only produce better results the more they are used.

The fraudsters are getting smarter and are winning the battle. Even if they find out, and they will, that new training is going to make it tougher to lie during the interview, we will have demonstrated to them that we're in the battle and working hard to stop them from ruining our communities.