Database Highlights Problem Loan Officers.

PHILADELPHIA -- There's a new cop on the beat in the war against mortgage fraud.

Introduced formally here last month at the National Association of Mortgage Broker's annual convention, the Coalition Against Broker Fraud has created a "comprehensive database" on brokers and other financing business insiders known or suspected to have been involved in fraudulent activity.

Finding a name on the list is not tantamount to an immediate indictment, the database's co-founders', Mitch Freifeld and Ron Litt, said, explaining that some people could be listed in error or out of retribution. But it should be enough to give pause to anyone considering using someone whose name is registered, they said.

Seeing a name on the list is a "red flag that you need to go a little deeper into the resume," said Freifeld, who is president of Global Net Branch Solutions, Clearwater, Fla.

"We've got to act aggressively," he said. "We have to attack it."

The co-founders said fraud against loan brokers goes much deeper than the $86 billion in losses estimated by the FBI in 2004. "It's putting entire companies out of business," Freifeld said. "And not just little, mom-and-pop companies, either. Nobody is immune."

Information for the database comes from a variety of sources, according to Mr. Litt, president of Advantage Credit, Pensacola. Some comes from the coalition's 15 originating members. And some comes from credit repositories, publicly available clearinghouses and "lots of other sources."