Real estate crooks and cons have even more reason to worry these days. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a multi-agency crackdown is set to target scams and frauds, as well as bolster state and federal action and efforts to protect homeowners.

This comes on the tails of an online survey conducted by the FTC, which found 71 distinct companies running suspicious ads. And a Treasury's committee finding nearly 180,000 fraudulent mortgage reports. ABCnews reports that "the FBI is currently investigating more than 2,100 mortgage fraud cases, up 400 percent from five years ago."

Among the efforts to combat this issue, "the Treasury and Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced an advanced targeting effort already underway to combat fraudulent loan modification schemes and coordinate ongoing efforts across agencies to investigate fraud and assist with enforcement and prosecutions. In less than a week, FinCEN's new targeting effort has produced leads that have helped various agencies to halt the illegal practices of those offering loan modification or foreclosure scams." Institutions area also being alerted to risks related to emerging schemes.

Also involved in the effort are the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Attorney General of Illinois, who met earlier this week for talks.

Published: April 7, 2009

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