Its annual publication of data, Fraudscape showed there were 2,495 cases of mortgage fraud in 2018, down from 3039 in 2017
There were 18%fewerreported cases of mortgage fraud in 2018 compared to the year before, fraud prevention service Cifas has found.
Its annual publication of data, Fraudscape showed there were 2,495 cases of mortgage fraud in 2018, down from 3039 in 2017. Application fraud accounted for most of the cases of mortgage fraud, with 2,386 cases, down from 2,915.
Mike Haley, chief executive officer of Cifas, said: “Fraud in the UK continues to rise and fraudsters are constantly finding new methods of committing fraud.
“From identity theft through to using the young and naïve as money mules to launder money, the economic and social harm to the nation is growing.
“The only way to fight the threat is to combine communication and collaboration, working together to present a united front against the perpetrators.
The number of misuse of facility cases decreased by 17% from 70 to 58. Therewasan unusually high number of instances of misuse of a mortgaged property in 2017, so this has decreased to more expected numbers.
In 2018, the use of false or stolen documents replaced frauds around declared levels of income as the most common reason for reporting application frauds.
