When I heard the term shotgunning I was having flashbacks to my not so logical and sober times in college. But when I heard the term in relation to mortgage fraud, it made a great deal of sense. Shotgunning in the mortgage fraud world is the application for and receiving multiple mortgages simultaneously, getting the proceeds of the multiple loans on the property, and then fleeing the country.

The shotgunning method of mortgage fraud is typically perpetuated by Eastern Europeans who can in one fell swoop steal enough money to live on in their native countries. It looks like the title companies are trying to attain first mover advantage on Shotgunning, but it is something that the whole industry needs to aggressively pursue.

Authorities are blaming Eastern Europeans affiliated with what is known as the Russian Mafia. “It’s the fraud of the year,” says Paul Doman, director of Title Insurance Co.’s Lenders Advantage Equity Division. “They can pull in excess of a million dollars out of the home, enough so they can live a good life back wherever they came from.”

First American and other title companies are trying to stop this and other schemes by forming a consortium in which applications for title searches are run through each other’s systems. That way, multiple applications on the same property can be spotted before rather than after the fact. via REALTOR® Magazine

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