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Fraudsters are increasingly using information gained from public record searches on recorded mortgages to create checks drawn on home equity lines of credit, ICBA’s Rebeca Romero Rainey shared in a message to community bankers this week.
Background: HELOC documents often contain all the information a fraudster needs to generate checks, including the customer's name, address, lender, signature, and account number.
Mitigation: Romero Rainey recommended that community bankers mitigate this growing source of fraud by:
Not printing the account number on new mortgage documents.
Reviewing all HELOC checks processed.
Advising customers to regularly review their HELOC accounts.
Reporting incidents to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center on its website.
Online Discussion: Community bankers can discuss the HELOC trend, check fraud, and related issues in ICBA Community’s fraud subgroup.