Mortgage fraud, a crime that declined 56% after 2006, made a 17% rise last year. About $14 billion worth of loans last year were made with bogus information. Crooks now steal identities or find unscrupulous loan officers to pull off the crimes, since regulations for mortgages tightened up after the crisis hit.
Mortgage fraud shows up in banks' balance sheets when they are forced to write off the loans' value.
