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Brokers might be surprised to learn "how easily they can spot anomalies once they know what to look for" in loan applications.
Mortgage fraud is on the rise, according to Veda, which revealed in August there had been a 52 per cent jump in suspicious credit applications during the previous two years.
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ASIC announced earlier this month that two Melbourne men had been arrested for carrying out an alleged $110 million mortgage fraud.
Kon Avramidis, general manager of operations at National Mortgage Brokers, said fraud can range from clients overstating their income to presenting counterfeit documents.
"Unfortunately, most brokers I know are not forensic scientists. However, you would be surprised how easily you can spot anomalies once you know what to look for," he said.
"Use of different fonts or alignment of figures on paperwork which are not quite right, dates in the wrong order, even figures and misspelt words or names are quite often missed by perpetrators."
Mr Avramidis said one example of fraud that was detected was an applicant who presented a driver's licence with an altered photo.
Other examples included payslips with figures that did not tally correctly and bank statements with dates that did not run consecutively, he said.
Mr Avramidis also gave examples of a counterfeit birth certificate that was misspelt as 'certficate' and a bank statement that contained a reference to 'cerdit' instead of 'credit'.
"The key is that if you feel something is not quite right with the information provided, a few moments spent asking further questions and re-examining documents can prove useful and may just help avoid being caught out in a fraud," he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Avramidis reminded brokers they have obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act, despite not being reporting entities.
That obligation will arise through the broker becoming an agent of a lender or by providing a designated service on behalf of the lender or other reporting entity, Mr Avramidis said.
"This means brokers are required to report to a lender any matter they have in relation to a new or existing customer they suspect in connection with tax evasion, money laundering, terrorism financing or any other activity prohibited under Commonwealth, state or territory law," he said.
[Related: 'Where there's money, there's fraud']
