The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is taking direct aim at mortgage fraud. In a nationwide crackdown, the agency says it will be making hundreds of arrests over the next few weeks, according to a recent report by the Financial Times, which cited “people familiar with the matter.”

The paper says the FBI is going after offenders who encouraged borrowers to falsify income when filling out their mortgage applications, scammed distressed homeowners about foreclosure rescue services, and inflated home appraisals that helped fuel the housing bubble.

The FBI’s Web site states that the agency has 77 mortgage fraud task forces and working groups in place, which have focused their efforts on crimes perpetrated by industry insiders.

During the first two months of 2010, the FBI received 29,780 suspicious activity reports (SARs) related to mortgage fraud. As of the end of February, 2,989 FBI investigations were pending, with 68 percent of those involving losses of more than $1 million.

Since the mortgage crisis set in, the FBI has been taking a closer look at questionable lending practices that it says contributed to the housing meltdown. In 2009, the federal agency opened 1,571 mortgage fraud cases. That compares to 136 just five years earlier.

Last year, the FBI’s efforts resulted in 822 indictments and 494 convictions.

According to estimates from the Prieston Group, a mortgage fraud mitigation firm, annual losses resulting from mortgage fraud schemes range from $4 billion to $6 billion.