Possum Urine, Spent Syringes: Tools of Mortgage Scammers

Subprime loans are gone, but mortgage fraud is alive and well, a Freddie Mac mortgage fraud investigator says.

During the mortgage fraud boom, predatory borrowers overpriced properties, took out 100 percent financing, paid the seller a lower price and pocketed the rest. The scammer stopped paying the mortgage in a few months.

No longer, says Jenny Brawley, a mortgage fraud investigator at Freddie Mac.

“Most of my cases right now involve loans that are current,” she said this morning at the National Association of Realtors conference in Orlando

Detroit Piston Lindsay Hunter Investigated in Mortgage Fraud

The FBI and Wayne County are investigating a fraud case that involves Lindsey Hunter and a company Hunter is a partner in.

Crain's Detroit Business: So far, Wayne County investigators consider [Hunter] a victim, with
someone else serving as what they describe as "a mastermind." The FBI, on the other hand,
according to sources close to its investigation, has him as its main focus and as a leading
participant in at least two possibly fraudulent deals that went awry.

To Bruce McClellan of Waterford Township, a boiler operator with the Pontiac Schools, there is no doubt about Hunter's role.

McClellan was duped by people claiming to represent Lindsey Hunter and talked into purchasing a home in Bloomfield Hills for 1.25 million dollars, even though Mr. McClellan made only about $35,000 a year.