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Dangers of the internet

Which States Have The Most Mortgage Fraud

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In a recent blog post by CoreLogic, the real estate consultancy has determined the regions of the U.S. that have the highest correlation with the National Mortgage Fraud Risk index.  The regions that are most highly correlated with fraud risk are areas that will be the best predictors of nationwide mortgage fraud.  In fact, one can look at a few highly correlated regions to predict fraud risk on a national scale.
The heatmap (figure 3) shows the correlation of each region to the National Trend.  Mousing over a region shows the region name, the tracking score, and the percentage level of the lowest to highest possible tracking score (-1.0 to 1.0).  The heatmap has two layers (that can be toggled in the top-right menu of the map), one for state and one for CBSA.  The CBSAs are limited to the top 50 CBSAs based on population.

California and Maryland have the highest correlation with the national trend for risk (see figure 2). 

The two states have tracking scores of 0.49 and 0.47 respectfully.  To put this in perspective, the next highest correlated state is Massachusetts with a tracking score of 0.1.  All other states have a tracking score less than a 0.  When California and Maryland are combined by averaging, the tracking score climbs to 0.72.  The correlation typically increases the more regions that are added because the national score is a combination of all regions.  However, the combined correlation gets worse when combining more states in descending order of correlation. It requires combining more than 6 states before it becomes better than combining California and Maryland alone.
Finding the states that are correlated is good but looking at smaller
regions is better.  Smaller regions have a reduced number of
contributing fraud factors to analyze.  Along with the states, CoreLogic also
looked at the correlation for metropolitan areas, commonly referred to
as core-based statistical areas (CBSA).  Utilizing the same process, the
number of CBSAs that best fits the national trend can be reduced to
three.  CBSAs are smaller than states and are less likely to be
predictive of the national trend (see figure 1). 

However, combining
only three CBSAs provide a strong correlation to the National Fraud Risk
Trend.  The three CBSAs are Baltimore-Columbia-Townson with a tracking
score of 0.43, San Francisco-Oakland-Heyward with a tracking score of
0.26, and San Diego-Carlsbad with a tracking score of 1.6.
Boston-Cambridge-Newton is the only other CBSA with a tracking score
higher than 0.   The top 3 CBSAs combined has a tracking score of 0.64. 
Combining more CBSAs will slightly increase the correlation percentage
but not significantly.  There are 935 CBSAs in the Nation and the top
three most correlated CBSAs only cover 12.2 Million out of 319 Million
people (3.8%) in the US.
According to CoreLogic, the national trend is not influenced by the largest population CBSAs as one might expect, due to more fraud instances given a larger volume of mortgages.  The top three CBSAs based on population (New York City, Las Angeles, and Chicago) with the highest of the three having a tracking score of -0.96 and a combined tracking score of -1.0.  The same is true for CBSA’s with the highest fraud risk (Miami, Daytona Beach, and New York City), each one having a tracking score of -1.0.
Understanding the highly correlated regions helps to identify the contributing factors that lead to fraud.  When looking across the nation, the number of potential factors is large and with the combination of the factors, the number becomes very large.  This make it almost impossible to find the contributing factors.  It is useful to see that the correlated regions are limited to just a couple of CBSA because it might reduce the number of potential factors to the point allowing analysts to identify the contributing factors.  
* * *
Meanwhile, a separate analysis from Bankrate has revealed the Top 10 states for mortgage fraud: it found that Florida led the way by a large margin, with eight times the number of expected mortgage fraud investigations, according to the LexisNexis Mortgage Fraud Index. Nevada came in second, with just more than 2.5 times the number of expected investigations. Those two states showed some of the worst declines during the collapse of the housing bubble.

Florida   
Nevada   
Arizona  
Delaware   
Illinois   
New Jersey  
California   
Michigan   
Georgia   
New York   

The most common type of mortgage fraud involves false information on applications, according to the FBI. This category includes incorrect borrower names, lies about the borrower’s job or income, misrepresentations about debts or assets, mismatched signatures, invalid Social Security numbers, and untruths about occupancy — in other words, the borrower says the home will be a primary residence when it’s really an investment property.
Other common types of fraudulent activity include: lying on tax returns and financial statements; Appraisal fraud; False information about the borrower’s bank deposits; Faked verifications of employment; Fraudulent escrow or closing documents; Falsified credit documents.

Source: http://bppro.link/?c=QCy

Dangers of the internet

Why Internet can be dangerous

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Why Internet can be dangerous

Why Internet can be dangerous is a reasonable question, that demands real answers to the age old problems of humanity.  The internet does not change the dark side of human nature, but rather can provide all forms of entertainment and education that has demand on the internet. So the logical question arises then is, how do you use the internet? What is the primary purpose of the internet for you?

 

Why Internet can be dangerous
Laptop computer open with keyboard visible and the monitor lit up with light

Are you the parent of a child or a teenager who wants to use the internet, if they don’t already? If so, you may have some concerns. Yes, it is typically safe for your child to use the internet to do research for school projects, but did you also know that children and teens are now using it to communicate with their friends or other internet users? This is how and when using the internet at a young age can become a problem.

As important as it is to hear that your child can find themselves in trouble online, if you do not know what internet safety steps can help to protect them, you may be looking for more information. You also may be curious as to what it is about the internet that can be so dangerous. For your convenience, five reasons why internet use can be dangerous for children and teenagers are highlighted below.

False Identities Are Easy to Create

Making new friends online is easy and convenient, but it is much different than doing so in person. Why? Because you can’t see who is at the other end of the computer. The internet makes it easy for someone to be anyone else in the world. For example, if your child is using social networking websites online, they have to enter in their age. They could easily lie themselves or they could be talking to someone else who is.

Internet Predators

As it was previously stated, the internet makes it easy to create a new, false identity. Often times, the individuals who lie about their ages are internet predators. They are the ones who target children, like yours. Unfortunately, many children, teenagers, and their parents cannot tell an internet predator until it is too late, like when the predators try to approach your child or contact them in person.

So Many Websites To Choose From

What is nice about the internet is that you have so many websites to choose from. In fact, that is why it is a good way to research school projects. With that said, having so many websites to choose from can be dangerous. Your child can gain access to social networking websites, adult chat rooms, pornographic websites, and websites that are violent in nature. Unless you have parental controls set up, your child can easily access any type of website with a standard internet search.

Not All Information Is Private

Unfortunately, many individuals, including both children and parents, do not know that the information that is posted online isn’t always private. For starters, most teens have their MySpace profiles set to public, as opposed to private. This means that anyone can view it. There are also online message boards that are indexed by the search engines. This means that others can view the conversations that were discussed, even years down the road.

They Are In Control

When your child uses the internet, they are the ones who are in control. This can be okay if your child is older and mature, but you honestly never know. You may ask your child not to communicate with strangers online, give out their phone numbers, or share pictures with strangers, but that doesn’t mean that they will follow your rules. For that reason, if you do let your child use the internet, be sure to monitor their use.

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