LexisNexis?? 15th Annual Mortgage Fraud Report shows the current composition of residential mortgage fraud and misrepresentation in the U.S. committed by mortgage industry professionals. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) mortgage regulations going into effect in January 2014. These annual fraud reports, armed with 15 years of trend data, allow for the tracking the effectiveness of this legislation. LexisNexis study points to mortgage loan modification and foreclosure rescue fraud, short sale schemes still occurring across the U.S. With improved data linking and pattern matching LexisNexis Risk’s Big Data uncovered an infestation of ???zombie mortgages??? (homes whose owners has abandoned their properties but which the bank never finished foreclosing upon, leaving the owners legally and financially responsible for the decaying buildings.) in Florida run by a coterie of businessmen in Florida. In the past, this fraud would not visible without considerably more human resources using the traditional checks and balances on the industry. This sets a precedent for how big data analytics is being used to find fraud and protect citizens by revealing data on mortgage collusion trends and analysis of national property default rankings sourced from LexisNexis public records for the top 10 states included in the study.http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130910005559/en