Uptick in Mortgage Wire Fraud Attempts

Across the mortgage lending space, wire fraud attempts are on the rise as hackers become increasingly sophisticated in their methods of deception.

In 2016, the American Land Title Association revealed that title companies reported an alarming 480% increase in wire fraud scams.

Allegiant Reverse Services, a California-based reverse mortgage title company, said it has spotted multiple incidents where a scammer poses as a HECM borrower requesting a wire transfer.

Allegiant Reverse Vice President Megan Awalt said that while all mortgage loan transactions are susceptible to scammers, it makes sense that this could be especially prevalent in HECM transactions.

“The reverse world does seem to have a high number of originators who use non-company email addresses, and those do leave more room for problems,” Hafenstein said.

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