Long Island Man Uses Fake Wire Instructions to Steal $4.7 Million from Lenders

A Long Island man, Brent Kaufman, pleaded guilty this week to stealing $4.7 million in mortgage refinancing proceeds that were meant to pay off the existing mortgages of his clients. Kaufman was an unlicensed mortgage broker and assisted clients in Queens and Long Island with refinancing their mortgages. Instead of using the lender proceeds, which […]

US Secret Service: Mortgage Payoff Fraud On the Rise

The U.S. Secret Service issued an advisory warning of a significant increase in wire transfer fraud involving efforts to substitute fraudulent mortgage payoffs and thereby divert proceeds for criminal gain. The government agency reported that criminals send fictitious or altered mortgage payoff statements to title companies, attorneys and others acting as a closing or settlement […]

ALTA: Wire Fraud Attempted in a Third of All Mortgage Closings Nationwide

According to a report this evening by the American Land Title Association (ALTA), a recent survey of their members reflected that “cyber criminals attempted to trick employees to wire funds to a fraudulent account in a third of all real estate and mortgage transactions.” ALTA’s report went on to state however that “training and education […]

CFPB RESCINDS TRUMP ADMIN ABUSIVENESS POLICY STATEMENT AND REAFFIRMS STRONGER ENFORCEMENT APPROACH

The CFPB announced today that is rescinding its January 24, 2020 policy statement, “Statement of Policy Regarding Prohibition on Abusive Acts or Practices.” As reported by the NJ MBA, “Going forward, the CFPB intends to exercise its supervisory and enforcement authority consistent with the full scope of its statutory authority under the Dodd-Frank Act as […]

CFPB “Hiring Spree” Signals New Enforcement Posture

As we have written here before, the election of the Biden-Harris ticket was sure to foretell a new regulatory approach to managing banks and banking. Given the “loosening” of oversight in the previous four years where nary a nasty audit was to be found and headline screaming consent orders were few and far between, it […]

Wire Fraud Remains a Key Cyber Liability Issue for Banks. Here Are Some Best Practices

It is only in the past several years that banks and mortgage lenders have faced heightened risk from wire fraud losses. In this time period lenders have been forced to uncover and defend the wide-spread use of various cyber schemes, including basic phishing using mass-market emails, spear phishing, using cyber intrusion tactics to go after […]

Transition to Permanent Work at Home Rules Increases Lender Risk from Third Party Vendors

When vendors allow employees to work from home, lenders face heightened service provider risk due to significantly relaxed operational oversight as well as non-sterile work environments where sensitive data can be lost or exploited more easily. Recent industry and news reports have discussed widespread efforts to make permanent work at home rules for employees. In […]

First Alliance Lending Subject of CFPB Action for Unlawful Lending Practices

Well it didn’t take long. We have been predicting for the past few months that the new Biden Administration would start to get much tougher on mortgage lenders. Especially as lenders are now seeing record revenues and profits; lots of deep pockets to collect fines and penalties. On January 15th, the CFPB announce it had […]

Biden’s Appointment to Head CFPB? It’s a Warren Protege

According to Housing Wire today, “President-elect Joe Biden announced several appointments Monday, including FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.” “Chopra is a CFPB veteran, having previously served as assistant director, where he was the bureau’s top student loan watchdog. In 2011, the Secretary of the Treasury appointed him to serve […]

The Emerging COVID Foreclosure Crisis

The ongoing discussions in Washington regarding a second COVID stimulus package, involving over $1 Trillion in funding and $2000 individual payments, which follows the previous $600 individual payments in December, masks a growing foreclosure crisis that should be a concern for mortgage lenders. COVID forced all “non-essential” business into hibernation and caused widespread unemployment, underemployment […]