It’s a spooky time of year, but all tricks and treats aside, there has been some really unsettling news involving mortgage fraud schemes in recent months. Check out these haunting headlines:

It’s unclear the implications that COVID-19 will have on the housing market, but it appears the demand for mortgages isn’t going anywhere any time soon. When the market is competitive, buyers want to jump in, and as a result many will break the rules. Mortgage fraud is an ongoing problem that can cause you financial harm, so you should be taking the necessary precautions to avoid it. Here’s 5 quick facts you should know about mortgage fraud.

Wire transfer fraud is one of the most serious trends in the mortgage industry. Recent Fannie Mae and FBI fraud alerts on wire transfer fraud identify more than 14,000 instances of this fraud scheme over the last year. Under this fraud scheme “hackers” use social engineering or computer intrusion techniques to send out a change of wire transfer instructions with the “new” account information.

More sophisticated fraud schemes and new regulations mean your mortgage lending services need to include fraud and verification tools optimized for today’s lending environment. Now, more than ever, you need to know whether the information behind loan documentation is authentic.

Since mortgage lending has changed over the last few years and more changes are coming in the years ahead, it’s imperative that your information provider has the ability to keep up with the evolution in the market.