2 additional classifications rose quarter over quarter, even as the yearly trend improved. Property scams danger, which covers inflated appraisals, increased 1.4% from Q4 2025 to Q1 2026.
Transaction scams risk, which records hidden conflicts of interest, camouflaged present funds, and concealed seller relationships, rose 7.1% over the same duration. Seguin stated the increase in residential or commercial property risk was the one that caught his eye.
“It’s the most current data, that quarter over quarter, am I beginning to see a new pattern here that I’ll be speaking about in 6, 9, 12 months?” he said. “Those notifies will be more prone to appear in scenarios where pockets of the nation are seeing decreasing values or stagnating values.”
Pattern fraud still an obstacle
Pattern scams is one of the more difficult problems to solve due to the fact that no single loan tells the story. It only appears when you look throughout lots of transactions and start seeing the exact same appraiser, the exact same investor, and the same cash-out structure repeating throughout a book of business.
He stated a circumstance in Baltimore last fall highlighted the problem. The same appraisers, the very same investor, and similar cash-out refinances were repeating across multiple deals in methods no specific underwriter reviewing a single file would have found.