Crooked appraisers fuel scams

The Chicago Tribune reports:

A loose network of crooked real estate appraisers is stealing the identities of legitimate colleagues to file false reports and fuel the surge of mortgage fraud in Chicago and across the nation.

The dishonest appraisers have emerged as key players in the multimillion-dollar mortgage crime wave, raising the stakes and obscuring misdeeds.

But even as the caseload mounts, the state agency overseeing about 6,000 appraisers in Illinois has struggled to get hold of the problem. Disciplinary cases have dragged on for years, while many serious infractions go unpunished.

Amazing.You'll want to read the whole story.