LexisNexis Risk Solutions today released the inaugural edition of the True Cost of Fraud Study for Real Estate. The newest addition to the True Cost of Fraud™ suite of reports, the study surveyed 360 risk and fraud executives in the industry to analyze current fraud trends in the United States mortgage originator, mortgage services and title/settlement markets. The report also explores key industry pain points related to fraud detection, prevention and the customer experience. In addition to analyzing the cost of fraud with the level of successful attacks, the study explores the time and resources that mortgage originators and services applied to prevent attacks.

A large majority of firms report that overall fraud has increased during the past 1-3 years with consumer fraud accounting for about two-thirds of lender and servicer fraud losses over the last 12 months. A significant majority of firms indicated that the pandemic increased application fraud across channels, not just for online and mobile. As the front end of the mortgage process, application fraud is a key entry point for fraudsters.