The ebook provides advisers with information on how to recognise the potential perpetration of fraud and how to prepare the business and staff to combat this.
It warns brokers to look out for implausible income changes, potential assistance or co-ordination with family members or businesses, and questionable payslip details.
And it highlights the risks of so-called property hijacking of unencumbered properties by rogue tenants.
The ebook covers:
- The most common types of fraud in the mortgage marketplace;
- The typical characteristics shown by customers who may be committing fraud;
- What to look out for on documentation provided by the fraudster – payslips and bank statements;
- Other areas of fraud in the financial services industry;
- Prevention – available tools that can help firms combat fraud without too much expense.
Firms must be vigilant
Paradigm Mortgage Services mortgages technical director Christine Newell (pictured) noted that the large sums of money involved in mortgages mean that the market is an ongoing target for criminals.
She added that better education, greater knowledge levels and a commitment to using technology and sharing information between organisations, could help keep fraud to a minimum.
“While the number of, what we might call, intermediary fraud ‘successes’ are very low, such attempts are constantly being made and there is no indication that fraudsters are going to stop trying to commit these crimes,” Newell said.
“It is therefore vitally important that advisory firms are constantly vigilant about the ways and means fraudsters use, how they can recognise potential fraud, and what they can do to combat it.”
She added: “The ebook provides a wealth of information on fraudulent activity and how to stop it from having a major negative impact on your firm, your client base and the industry.
The ebook can be downloaded for free from the Paradigm website by following this link.
File review service
The firm is additionally launching a new Fraud File Review Service for £500 which will review a selected number of files a firm may consider to be at risk, or where they may have received a decline letter from a lender due to inconsistencies.
Paradigm will then be able to identify any inconsistencies which may potentially assist the firm in dealing, and communicating, with the client and the lender following the outcome of the file review.
It added that this could potentially play a part in helping the firm form an appeal against any removal from a lender panel.
