The report tracked mortgage frauds across the categories of application fraud, facility takeover, identify fraud and misuse of facility.
Application fraud fell by 18 per cent to 2,386 cases, driving the overall picture on mortgage fraud. Use of false or stolen documents replaced declared level of income as the most common application fraud
Misuse of facility frauds fell by 17 per cent to 58, compared to an unusually high number of instances in 2017.
Facility takeover frauds recorded the biggest drop, down 33 per cent to six cases in 2018. Identify fraud in mortgage products was flat at 45 cases.
UK-wide increase
The new report, Fraudscape, analysed recorded cases of fraud from 470 UK organisations including major brands.
The research covered banking including mortgages, insurance, credit cards and online retail.
Overall, the number of UK fraud cases increased by six per cent 323,660.
The number of cases of identify fraud in the UK rose by 18 per cent to 189,108 in 2018, with younger and older people more likely to be hit.
Identify fraud against the under-21s rose by 26 per cent and for those over 60 it climbed 34 per cent.
Fraud prevention member organisation Cifas introduced Fraudscape to provide a trackable perspective on UK fraud over time.
