Proving that Fraud is still out there -- even in a depressed real estate market, Interthinx has released its quarterly Mortgage Fraud Risk Report covering data collected in the fourth quarter of 2011. According to the most recent analysis, Cape Coral, FL is the highest risk for valuation fraud in the nation, and Florida places third overall, behind Arizona and Nevada.

The full report can be accessed here   

Valuation fraud is particularly likely to implicate a title agent, because somewhere, somehow, they have to get the excess funds out of the escrow account.   So be cautious of requests to payoff non-record mortgages, debts, unusual or excessive fees, and by all means reject any requests to provide multiple HUD-1s.