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Insurance and mortgage officials warn of targeted scams hitting seniors and real-estate closings
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Summary
Insurance investigators and mortgage bankers detailed common schemes — staged accidents, forged policies, business-email compromise and reverse-mortgage targeting — and outlined enforcement tools and consumer-protection practices.
Witnesses from the Arkansas Department of Insurance and the mortgage industry described distinct fraud risks that affect particular markets and age groups.
Dan Reber, director of criminal investigations at the Arkansas Department of Insurance, summarized enforcement activity and patterns: referrals rose to 1,978 in 2024, the office prosecutes agent fraud and forged policies (including commission-churning), and large cases such as staged-accident rings can produce multi-million-dollar payouts that do not reach service providers. Reber outlined common schemes used to defraud insurers and emphasized prosecution, restitution and investigative capacity.
David Norris of the Arkansas Mortgage Bankers Association described mortgage and real-estate fraud trends: fake loan payoffs, identity-based mortgage fraud and reverse-mortgage scams that disproportionately target seniors. Norris urged independent verification of wire instructions at closings and use of licensed professionals searchable through the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS).
Committee members asked whether state public records or online data make fraud easier; witnesses said public records remain important for transparency but agreed that online access can be abused, and they urged consumer vigilance and verification steps at closing and when transferring funds.
The committee received these presentations as part of a broader hearing on financial fraud; no new insurance or mortgage legislation was considered at the session.
