Amanda Eilledge assesses the threats posed by mortgage identity fraud
The classic example of identity mortgage fraud concerns the husband in financial difficulty who remortgages or sells the matrimonial home without his wife’s knowledge.
He forges his wife’s signature on the transfer and/or the charge. In most cases, these deeds will be held by the solicitor who believes he is acting for both the husband and wife and will be delivered by him on completion.
The purchaser and/or the lender consents to the purchase monies being released on delivery of the deeds. The husband uses the money to pay off his debts.
A more recent and far more sophisticated variation on this fraud involves a fraudster who adopts the identity of a residential homeowner with a high credit rating and no mortgage.
He obtains a mortgage in the homeowner’s name and absconds with the money. In a recent case I was involved in, the fraudster managed to redirect the victim’s post to a PO box number so that the real owner was unaware of the correspondence regarding the mortgage, and even posed as the
