Many people think of reverse mortgages as a last-resort source of income, but reverse mortgages can also be a smart financial tool for eligible homeowners in retirement. The extra funds provide seniors and retirees with an alternative way of accessing their equity without refinancing or selling their homes. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) set more regulations and stricter requirements on HECM programs to protect high-risk borrowers from default. Since then, defaults on new reverse mortgage lending have decreased by over 66% in some cases. However, reverse mortgage scams do exist. Reverse mortgage fraud is a type of equity scam in which a perpetrator persuades an older person to take out a reverse mortgage against their best interests for the fraudster’s personal financial gain. Often, the victim is already acquainted with the perpetrator in reverse mortgage scams, but some lenders also purposely mislead prospective borrowers, according to the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA).