If you thought the evil "bad guys" had left the mortgage business for greener pastures, think again. The thieves are still out there, ready to separate you from your money. But at the same time, many of us are still not above stretching the truth a little when we are trying to obtain financing.

First, the business bad guys, represented today by the Amerisave Mortgage Corporation, which the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered to pay $19.3 million for perpetrating a deceptive bait-and-switch scheme on would-be borrowers.

The CFPB found that the Atlanta-based online company, which lends in all 50 states, lured consumers by advertising misleading interest rates, locked them in with costly up-front fees, failed to honor its published rates and then illegally overcharged them for affiliated third-party services.

Here's how it worked, according to the CFPB: Since 2011, the company advertised inaccurate rates and terms in online banner ads and searchable rate tables on third-party websites, inducing consumers to pursue a mortgage with Amerisave. Once at Amerisave's website, the company gave consumers quotes based on an 800 FICO score, even when they had previously entered a score well below 800 on the third-party site that led them to Amerisave in the first place. The result: misleading quotes.

The company also required consumers to pay for an appraisal before it would provide a good-faith estimate, then it ordered the appraisal from an affiliated company. Borrowers weren't told that salient fact until later.

Then, at closing, Amerisave charged its customers for something called "appraisal validation" reports without disclosing that that service was also provided by an affiliated company. They also weren't told the fee was marked up by as much as 900 percent.

In its investigation, the CFPB found that Amerisave and its owner, Patrick Markert, pocketed more than $3 million in indirect profit distributions by overcharging unknowing borrowers. The validation reports cost $20, but Amerisave charged $100, with the $80 windfall finding its way to Markert's wallet.

Markert, by the way, has been ordered to pay an additional $1.5 million personally.

Not all lenders are such scoundrels, of course. Heck, most of them are honest and forthright.

But at the same time, it's your money and you'd better take the necessary precautions to protect it.

"By the time consumers could have discovered the advertised low rates were too good to be true, they had already committed to pay hundreds of dollars," CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in a statement.

Next comes the Ocwen Financial Corporation, which has been called on the carpet by the New York Department of Financial Services. According to an open letter by DFS Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky, Ocwen has been running a "complex arrangement" that "appears designed to funnel as much as $65 million in fees annually from already-distressed homeowners" to an affiliated company for minimal work in providing force-placed insurance.

No charges have been filed, and no guilt has been found -- at least not yet. But Lawsky has asked the company to explain itself. After all, the Federal Housing Finance Agency has banned banks and mortgage servicers from accepting commissions on force-placed policies issued by affiliated companies.

Now this from Interthinx, a provider of risk-mitigation solutions for the financial services industry. Interthinx reports that occupancy fraud, while down somewhat from last year's third quarter, is still significant. At the same time, valuation fraud is on the upswing.

An explanation, as those terms may not mean much to the average Joe: Occupancy fraud is when the would-be borrower says he will occupy the property -- when he has no intention of doing so -- in order to obtain the better rates and terms that are reserved for owner-occupants. And valuation fraud is an attempt to create instant, nonexistant equity in a property by artificially inflating value, then extracting it from the proceeds of a larger loan than would otherwise be granted.

Another report, this one from mortgage giant Fannie Mae, shows an alarming increase in income misrepresentation and a lesser, though no less important, jump in falsification of social security numbers. Put all these together and you have a real catch-22: You cheat me and I'll lie to you.

Occupancy and valuation fraud are typically the province of investor-buyers of foreclosed properties, whereas faking how much the borrower earns is usually a crime perpetrated by individuals.

So, while those of us on this side of the transaction would do well to deal carefully with those on that side, those on that side need to be just as vigilant -- otherwise they'll be taken in by the shady among us. You know who you are.

With offers and counteroffers flying back and forth across the table, negotiations between buyer and seller are an important part of the real estate dance, with each side trying to glean any advantage they can.

Toward that end, Britain's largest online brokerage firm, House Network, has teamed up with a leading body-language analyst to create a 10-step guide to help sellers decipher the unspoken intentions of potential buyers through their physical behavior. The guide, entitled "The Art of the Silent Sell," offers the insight of body-language expert Robert Phipps, an analyst, public speaker and the author of "Body Language: It's What You Don't Say That Matters."

The guide offers insights into the nuances of what a would-be buyer's body is saying that his mouth isn't. It also provides advice on how sellers can change their own behavior so they don't reveal their bargaining position.

"The importance of understanding nonverbal communication, both yours and that of your buyers, cannot be underestimated," says Phipps. "Buyers make purchase decisions with their senses, so this guide explains how sellers should use this to their advantage by appealing to their buyers' basic instincts, which are hard-wired."

Being an online operation, the House Network doesn't use agents, so much of the advice is premised on the notion that sellers should show their homes themselves.

Here in the States, that's pretty much frowned upon. Sellers are told to sit back, or actually leave the premises, and let the agents do their jobs. But as Graham Lock, co-founder of House Network, points out, no one knows your home better than you, so "you are in the best position to sell its positives."

According to the guide, then, the seller's job is to "present the property's best features and observe" the potential buyer's responses. In this way, you can dwell on more of what the buyer wants and likes, and ignore what they don't want.

With no further ado, here are some of the key points from "Silent Sell":

-- Greeting. Not only does the greeting begin every interaction, it sets the tone from there on out. So be sure you are ready and waiting for the buyer, but don't be too eager. Standing and waiting with an open door may be polite, but it might also make you appear desperate. Better to wait for the prospect to knock or ring the doorbell.

-- Handshake. Although some people don't like to shake hands, Phipps suggests going for it anyway. Most people find it difficult to resist an extended hand, and besides, it will give you an idea how enthusiastic they are about seeing your place for the first time.

-- Eyes. It's called a viewing because people use their eyes more than any other sense.

Your job is to show your home's best attributes. As you do, try to notice whether your visitor is engaging with you by actually looking at the features as you point them out.

-- Smile. This shows someone is happy, relaxed and content. So as you go from room to room, look to see if the corners of the buyer's mouth are turning upward. Make a mental note of their positive reactions and try to point out similar features to continue the mood.

-- Nods. Subtle head-shakes are good indicators of positive or negative feelings.

Encourage visitors to do this by nodding and shaking your own head when you speak about the good things about the property, neighborhood and local amenities.

-- Posture. How you stand has a great impact on how people feel about you. So make sure you are standing up straight. That equates to high confidence, which will help convey a measure of truth to what you are saying.

-- Angles. How you stand or sit in relation to your potential buyers can have a major impact on how comfortable they feel in your home. Greetings are normally face-to-face, but after that, avoid engaging visitors straight on. Rather, sit or stand to the left of the person you are showing around, because most people are right-handed. If they are left-handed, go the other way.

-- Feel. Encourage the prospect to sit on the sofa, lie down on your bed or open the kitchen drawers. The more folks can try things out, the more comfortable they will feel -- and the easier it will be for them to envision themselves in your place and make up their minds. That's why car salespeople practically demand that you sit behind the wheel or take a test drive.

-- Smell. This is the most basic of all the senses. From birth, people react almost automatically to odor in either a positive or negative way. Here, you needn't bake a cake or brew fresh coffee to make people feel at home, although there's nothing wrong with that. But you must make sure your place either smells completely neutral or has a pleasant fragrance.

-- Sound. Every home has noises, from creaky steps to the rush of traffic outside. If you have a noise, fix it. And if you live on a noisy street, pick a showing time when there's the least amount of traffic.

Says Lock: "Each and every buyer will interpret your home differently, according to their needs and requirements. Your challenge is to sell your home's best features.

"Appeal to the senses, notice how your potential buyers react and what their body language tells you, and concentrate on the positive while moving on quickly from the negatives."

Homeowners choose not to refinance their mortgages for any number of reasons. But when they don't, they lose out on tens of thousands of dollars in savings.

Exactly how much they lose depends on each borrower's individual circumstances, but a first-of-its-kind study attempts to quantify what people forfeit by not turning in their old loan rates for lower ones.

Researchers found that the median household, having failed to refinance, gave away $45,000 in savings over the life of its mortgage. The study -- by Benjamin Keys and Devin Pope from the University of Chicago, and Jaren Pope of Brigham Young University -- also found that the mistake of not refinancing is widespread.

Based on a sample of 1.5 million single-family mortgages that were active in December 2010, they estimate that 1 in 5 borrowers -- that is, roughly 300,000 families -- had not refinanced when it appeared profitable to do so.

The findings "suggest that the size and scope of the problem of failing to refinance is large," the researchers said. "While much of the savings a household can receive by refinancing represents a transfer of wealth from investors to households, the foregone savings is clearly significant for each individual household."

Even when controlling the sample for the often-valid reasons borrowers have for sticking with their higher-rate loans, Keys, Pope and Pope found that the losses were just as great, if not more so.

The justifications people have for not refinancing are almost as varied as the borrowers themselves. One factor is that calculating the financial benefit -- or loss -- is relatively complex. Another is that the benefits are not always immediate, but rather accrue over time.

But other factors often are at play. Refinancing can be expensive, often requiring cash out-of-pocket to cover a number of upfront costs.

Sometimes borrowers don't believe the refinancing offers they receive are legitimate. Some don't even open letters from lenders, thinking what's inside is some sort of scam.

In other instances, the borrower's balance is so low that refinancing is seen as not worth the trouble. In other cases, they no longer have the good credit necessary to win approval from lenders. And in yet other cases, they might owe more than their houses are currently worth, meaning they'd have to bring large amounts of cash to the table to gain lower rates.

Absent these factors, though, the authors say, "there are serious consequences for homeowners if they fail to take advantage of refinancing options when interest rates decline."

The typical active loan in the sample was paying 5.52 percent in interest, had 23 years remaining and an unpaid balance of just over $200,000. The average loan-to-value ratio was 74 percent.

The authors estimate that over 91 percent of the households in the full sample would benefit from refinancing -- a percentage they admit is dramatically overstated, since it doesn't allow for homeowners who were planning on moving, those who kept their original loans for tax purposes, and other factors. Allowing for those factors, the researchers calculate that 41 percent of the full sample were in a position where they should have refinanced.

Narrowing the sample even further by weeding out people whose credit scores had declined, whose loan-to-value ratios had increased, and/or who had missed or been late with a mortgage payment reduced the number who should have refinanced to 31 percent. And after removing households that had taken second liens against their properties, the sample was still 20 percent of households in December 2010 who were missing an important financial opportunity.

Worse, perhaps, is that 4 out of 10 of those people were still living in their homes two years later, continuing to make the full and on-time monthly payments, even though rates had continued to decline.

Take a household with a 30-year, fixed-rate loan of $200,000 at 6.5 percent at origination. When rates declined to 4.5 percent between 2008 and 2010, the savings by refinancing over the life of the mortgage is more than $80,000, even after accounting for transaction costs.

When rates reached all-time lows in late 2012, they had dipped to 3.35 percent. So someone with a contract rate of 6.5 percent would save roughly $130,000 by refinancing.