Lesson 3 of 6

First-party fraud: false information, loan stacking and bust-outs

In first-party fraud the applicant is who they say they are, but deceives the lender: by overstating income, by hiding other loans taken at the same time, or by building a good record in order to borrow as much as possible and never repay. This lesson explains why intent is what separates it from credit loss, how each pattern works, what research and international principles say about misreported income and incomplete credit data, and how to tell stacking from need with a worked example.

Published 29 October 2026