Mortgage Fraud in Canada Up 150% Year on Year

According to Equifax, mortgage fraud is up 150%, $400 million in total, and that's just what they found for their clients, meaning it's a low estimate.

An analyst the other day pegged subprime of new originations through the broker channel (correction) in Canada at 15%. Where we stand. He had a very good point that tightening of mortgage rules will have a disproportionate impact on prices because the marginal buyers are the only growth areas left, (implying that) without them, the market must contract (or at least cease growing, which for a bubble is still death).

Mortgage fraud hits 'eye-opening' level in Canada, report says

Numerous criminal groups across Canada are involved in a wide range of mortgage frauds at varying levels, the CISC says, sometimes with the help of industry insiders such as property agents, mortgage brokers and lawyers.

One growing trend is people setting up fictitious identities, building up credit for those fake people and then using the credit to borrow.

Equifax says that five years ago, it had identified 300 such fictitious identities in its national database. Now there are over 2,500.