fannie mae has issued a mortgage fraud alert to lenders in Northern California, warning of an increased incidence of misrepresenting child support income in “many loans” that have originated in the region over the past few months.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!GSE highlighted four features of such a plan. These include, “the equality of real estate agents involved in selling the subject properties; Bank Statements and Canceled Checks [which] Wrongful child support is made to support the income; borrowers have[ing] no other source of income; Child and spousal support documents provided in the loan files do not match public records regarding those same individuals.”
The plan also typically includes “converted court documentation with case numbers that begin with ‘HF'” because California state court case numbers do not begin with “HF”.
Fannie Mae stated that borrowers involved in such a plan generally would not be eligible for loans without including the misrepresented income.
For lenders who suspect they may have customers attempting to perpetrate the scheme, Fannie Mae recommends documenting all applicable details.
“Exercise special caution on any loan with spousal or child support as the primary income for the borrower,” the GSE said. “View public records data to determine authenticity of supporting documents included in loan file.”
If a professional suspects fraud, Fannie Mae recommends following the established policies and procedures of both their company and the Fannie Mae Selling Guide, as well as through the GSE’s dedicated webpage designed for reporting fraud. Reports incidents of fraud.
There are also a number of general steps that can be taken to catch fraudulent incidents, including having a well-established relationship with third party originators/brokers; educating employees about issues related to fraud; sharing information within a professional’s organization; And if it doesn’t make sense then just avoid taking the loan.
