Mortgage fraud increased by 18% in 2010, largely driven by a 27% increase in the number of application frauds compared with 2009. Application frauds now account for 96% of all mortgage frauds, with identity frauds and misuse of facility frauds dropping back to the levels recorded in 2008. The increase in mortgage application fraud was in line with expectations that falling house prices and tighter lending criteria have exposed falsified mortgages, especially those where key information on the original application form, such as salary, was untrue. See FRAUDSCAPE: Depicting the UK’s fraud landscape (March 2011), an annual report published by CIFAS – the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service.
CIFAS is a not-for-profit industry organisation dedicated to preventing fraud, founded in 1988 as the Credit Industry Fraud Avoidance System. The CIFAS National Fraud Database contains records of frauds that have been perpetrated against CIFAS Member organisations. In order to be recorded on the CIFAS Database a case must satisfy a burden of proof. This means that there must be sufficient evidence to take the case to the police, although it is not mandatory to do so.