Mortgage scam reports up 407% from 2022: report

Mortgage scam reports have soared in recent years, opposite of the housing market’s slowdown.

The industry as of April was reporting 71 mortgage scams per month, up from just 14 per month in 2022 at the tail-end of the refinance boom, according to BackOffice Pro, a business services organization. While real estate companies disclosed losses in just 12% of incidents, the average financial hit was $16,829.

The majority, or 53.3% of those cases involved phishing, in which fraudsters impersonated title companies, lenders or real estate agents to redirect wire transfers in the homebuying process. The finding coincides with the FBI’s recent cybercrime report, which highlighted phishing as the most common internet crime in 2024. 

Other leading mortgage scams, according to BackOffice Pro,…