I recently did a short course on fraud. It is part of my continuing education to keep me on top of my game in this business.
It was quite interesting and borderline shocking. Canadians and others have long looked at "white collar" crime as less important and of less concern and as a result there are not the policing resources, the sentencing levels or the statistics to help us truly deal with this problem. One of the interesting facts that came out was that the cost of all forms of fraud in Canada is estimated to be about the same as the drug problem, or between $12 and 38 Billion per year.
To me the worst part of it is that it often seriously hurts people who otherwise stay out of trouble, they are not thugs or drug addicts and yet they can loose their life savings with one bad judgment call.
The people that perpetrate the frauds are part of organized crime for the most part, and they often use the proceeds of the fraud to help fund their guns and drugs etc..
In 2008 there were 1.7 million victims of identity fraud in Canada and it can cost people a lot of time and money to sort it out and clean up the damage.
While the full breakdown of statistics is not available in Canada the estimated mortgage fraud is about $200 million per year and while the course is not going to tell me how it is done, for obvious reasons, we do know aspects of it. I have heard tales of people faking powers of attorney and acting for seniors and selling their house from under them. I know about the "straw man" approach where someone fronts for someone else. There are tales of bankers, lawyers and yes, mortgage agents all playing a role at one time or another so we all need to be vigilant and make sure we protect our information.
Having title insurance is one way to help protect your home, and you can clear the cache on your computer, keeping your virus protection up to date, shredding documents with key information on them before sending them to recycling, and not looking for easy money over the internet, the mail, the email or over the phone. The people who run these frauds know which type of fraud is most likely to succeed with which demographic and though we all think it cannot happen to us, the facts show that every age group, gender and education level has been hit at one time or another.
Be careful, do your homework and when in doubt check references or just steer clear.
Stay safe and fraud free and if you suspect you have been had or are being had, do not be embarrassed call the police or RCMP and be part of the solution.
