Despite the increased risk, mortgage fraud has not been discovered: Third Board – Mortgage Strategy

The true scale of mortgage fraud in the UK may be much larger than official law enforcement data of Third Beat, with only 17 enforcement investigations on mortgage fraud since 2018.

Third Ford’s free information claim to the financial conduct authorities suggests that UK mortgage fraud may be greater than official law enforcement data.

The number of surveys in 2019 peaked in 2019, while activity continued between 2022 and mid-2024, with an average of three to four cases per year.

The data from Vertex Bridge found that between 2022 and 2023, mortgage fraud cases rose by 32.8%.

The data also show two dormant years between 2020 and 2021, suggesting that pandemic-related financial crime detection and damage in law enforcement can be linked.

UK finance shows that fraud lost £1.17 billion in 2023, and mortgage fraud is a growing contributor.

With the rise of technology, CIFAS has found that fake files and identity fraud generated by using artificial intelligence (AI) also makes detection more difficult.

“These numbers suggest that the number of mortgage fraud investigations is relatively low, but that’s certainly not the whole situation,” said Olly Thornton-Berry, co-founder and CEO of Third Ford.

“In the UK, in addition to the FCA, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), local police force and the National Crime Agency (NCA) are all playing a role in investigating cases involving suspected mortgage fraud.”

“In addition, as fraudsters become more complex, industry data tells a different story and there may be a lot of fraud activity not discovered.”

Earlier this year, the National Fraud Intelligence Agency (NFIB) data released by the Ministry of the Interior showed that people between the ages of 18 and 39 accounted for nearly three-quarters of rent fraud cases.

According to NFIB data, fraud losses were nearly £9 million in the 5,000 reports reported last year.