Mortgage fraud down but risky pockets persist

Mortgage fraud is on the decline even among subprime loans, according to a new report, but some parts of the country continue to stubbornly buck that trend. Overall, CoreLogic found that fraud was down by 25% nationwide since its 2007 peak.

Tim Grace, senior vice president of fraud analytics, attributed the downward trend to lender restrictions and scrutiny, but noted that $14 billion in fraud losses continued in 2009. "While the industry has done good work there is evidence that fraud patterns are changing and becoming increasingly better hidden," Grace said in a news release.

Of the remaining fraud, nearly a third was income fraud, followed by identity fraud. Breaking it down regionally, income fraud arose most in Wyoming, California and Georgia, while identity issues cropped up in Arizona -- a leader, CoreLogic reported, in credit card identity fraud.