Borrower Fraud Red-Flag Screen
Screens a loan file for fraud patterns and turns each one into a verification step
Install it in one line — paste a single command into Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor and it writes the skill into your project.
Free, and about thirty seconds: a work email and a six-digit code.
Downloading shares your name, firm, role, and email with The Helvetica Group. That introduction is what keeps every skill here free.
What this skill does
Reads a loan file for the patterns behind most private-lending fraud losses — identity problems, hidden buyers, related-party sales, sudden value jumps, suspicious payoffs, altered documents and changed wire instructions — and turns each one into a specific, independent check before you fund.
What it does
- Checks identity, occupancy, straw-buyer, related-party and quick-resale patterns across the whole file
- Looks at refinance payoffs for liens to related parties and payments routed to individuals
- Flags documents that don't add up: statements that don't total, leases with no deposits, contractor bids from companies that can't be found
- Watches for sellers posing as the owners of vacant land or free-and-clear properties
- Treats any change to wiring instructions as high risk until confirmed by a phone number you found yourself
- Rates every flag, notes the likely innocent explanations, and names the next step and who owns it
When to use it
- Before clear-to-close on any file
- A deal feels rushed, too good, or oddly structured
- A refinance pays off a lender you've never heard of
- Anyone sends new or changed wiring instructions
What to have ready
- The borrower and guarantor details and identity documents
- The title report and property sale history
- The value and its comps
- Payoff letters, bank statements, leases and closing emails, if available
How to use it
- Download it with the button above. You'll sign in with a work email — that's how the creator knows who is using their skill.
- Copy the install prompt from the "Run it in Claude" box, and paste it into Claude along with the file. Claude installs the skill, fills in your firm's details where the file has
[BRACKETED]placeholders, and runs a quick test with you. - Then just ask in plain English. Claude picks the skill up on its own when a request matches it. Anything it still needs, it asks you for — it won't invent a number.
"Screen the file on [PROPERTY ADDRESS] before we fund. It's a cash-out refi and the payoff goes to a private lender we don't know. Title, payoff letter and appraisal attached."
What you get back
An overall result, a red-flag table with evidence, severity, innocent explanations and next verification steps, patterns that point the same way, a wire-safety reminder, and an internal note for your compliance lead.
Good to know
- Output quality tracks input quality. A missing figure is flagged as missing — it is never estimated to fill a gap.
- Every draft is a starting point for your own review, not a finished decision.
- Runs anywhere Claude does: the Claude app, Claude Desktop, or Claude Code.
- Every item is framed as needing verification, never as an accusation; the screen stays internal; and high-risk items are routed to your compliance process.
Legal disclaimer
This skill drafts; it does not decide. Its output is not legal, tax, accounting, appraisal, or investment advice, and using it creates no attorney-client, fiduciary, or advisory relationship. Nothing it produces is a commitment to lend or an offer to sell a security. Verify every number, date, citation, and conclusion against the source documents, and have a qualified professional licensed in the relevant jurisdiction review the work before you rely on it or send it to a borrower, investor, counterparty, or regulator. Laws, rates, and market data change. The final work product is yours.
Inside this skill
The actual file you get. Members can read it in full before saving it.
Borrower Fraud Red-Flag Screen
Private lenders are targeted precisely because they move fast, lend on the asset, and often skip the checks a bank's automated systems would run. The losses rarely come from a single forged document. They come from a pattern nobody put together: a buyer who has never owned property, a seller entity formed six weeks ago, a value that doubled since last spring, a payoff to a lender that isn't on title, and an email on closing day with "updated" wire instructions. This skill reads the file for those patterns and turns each one into a specific verification step.
Works for purchases and refinances on bridge, fix-and-flip, DSCR, construction and land loans, and is most valuable just before clear-to-close.
Framing. Every item this skill produces is a red flag requiring verification. Most have innocent explanations. The output never concludes that anyone committed fraud.
Step 1 — Intake
| Input | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Transaction type | ✅ | Purchase, refinance, cash-out; property type |
| Borrower and guarantor identity | ✅ | Names, IDs, application, entity docs, addresses |
| Purchase contract and addenda | For purchases | Price, parties, assignments, credits, earnest money |
| Title commitment and chain of title | ✅ | Current vesting, recent transfers and prices, liens, recorded payoffs |
| Valuation | ✅ | Appraisal, BPO or ARV with comps |
| Asset and income documents | Helpful | Bank statements, leases, rent rolls, contractor bids |
| Payoff letters | For refinances | Lender name, amount, wire instructions |
| Closing communications | Helpful | Emails about wiring, changes to parties or instructions |
| Credit and background results | Helpful | Identity alerts, address history, other properties |
Minimum viable: the parties, the title chain, and the value. Screen what is available and list what was not reviewed.
Step 2 — Screen each pattern
2.1 Identity
- Name, date of birth, SSN and address inconsistent across ID, application, credit report and entity documents; a credit report with identity alerts, or an SSN the report flags as not matching the name, recently issued, or associated with a deceased person.
- ID that looks altered or doesn't match the person on a video call; unwillingness to meet or verify.
Reading the full skill counts as a download. The contributor receives your name, company, and email.
Ratings & reviews
No written reviews yet. If you run this on a live file, say how it went. The next lender reading this page is deciding whether to trust it.
Examination record
Run it in Claude
- Copy the install command above
- Paste it into Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor
- It writes the skill in, fills in your firm’s details, and test-runs it with you
Prefer the file? The prompt above is for a package you already downloaded.
Details
More from The Helvetica Group
They publish here under a verified work email. Their other skills, and how to reach them, are on their contributor page.