Mortgage fraud

Equifax continues work to add new security features and restore full access to The Work Number following a report highlighting potential security vulnerabilities in a browser-based portal of its employment verification service.

Recently exposed security vulnerabilities in an Equifax tool used extensively in the mortgage industry are raising new questions about the reliability and veracity of the beleaguered credit bureau's employment verification service.

A lawyer has been convicted on federal fraud charges for scheming to provide falsified documents to prevent foreclosure on a nearly $2 million parcel of land in Aurora, Ill.

A Hazleton, Pa., real estate agent who admitted bilking home buyers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars through bogus property sales was sentenced to serve more than four years in federal prison.

The president and founder of a now-defunct East Falmouth, Mass., mortgage company pleaded guilty to charges that he defrauded the federal government out of about $2.5 million.

Arlando Jacobs and Clarence Roland stole homes across Texas and two other states with the scribble of a pen, the FBI says.

The former president of a defunct Long Island, N.Y.-based national mortgage lender was sentenced in federal court in Central Islip to three years of probation and ordered to pay $20 million in restitution to taxpayers.

Borrower and mortgage eligibility problems, a sign of the shift to a purchase market, were the leading cause of critical defects found following post-closing reviews, according to Aces Risk Management.

A federal judge awarded treble damages totaling $296 million in a False Claims Act case alleging Texas lender Allied Home Mortgage defrauded the Federal Housing Administration mortgage program.

Automated data validations are integral to a seamless digital mortgage experience. But the extent of data exposed in the Equifax breach raises questions about the risk of fraudsters exploiting those technologies to further compromise consumer data.