In the real world, there are a lot of folks who make their way by lying, cheating and stealing. In the real estate business, as I’ve mentioned, these behaviours have become the norm rather than the exception. Law enforcement is “overwhelmed.” Constance Wilson, executive vice president of Interthinx, which develops fraud detection tools for the lending industry, thinks it is going to get even worse:

“The cases we’re seeing today are from 18, 24, 36 months ago, when the market was still good,” Ms. Wilson said. “Now we’re going to see an increase in mortgage fraud, because all those loan officers, brokers and appraisers who were making six-figure incomes, now their back is against the wall. If that loan doesn’t close, they can’t make their home payment.

An increase? Hard to believe that it could be worse. But the reality is that most of the fraudsters will go unpunished, ready, willing and able to do it again.