TAMPA - We're still No. 1. But save the confetti.

Florida ranks highest among all states for mortgage fraud, according to a report released Monday by Reston, Va.-based Mortgage Asset Research Institute.

In fact, 24 percent of fraudulent loans reported to the institute during the first quarter originated on properties in Florida.

Officials at the institute said much of the fraud was driven by speculators and people trying to scam financially troubled homeowners who are desperately trying to keep from losing their homes in foreclosure.

"A lot of these 'foreclosure rescue' companies are popping up overnight," said Denise James, a director of ChoicePoint, the parent company of the research institute. "They're cold-calling, they're putting fliers on cars and signs in the ground.

"Rescue fraud is the newest and hottest fraud right now."

Incidents of mortgage fraud in the United States increased by 42 percent in the first quarter of 2008 compared with the same quarter a year ago, according to the report.

The data used in the report were submitted by lenders, and all the loans included were originated in the first quarter of this year. All have been classified by lenders as fraudulent.

The Miami area had the largest chunk of the first-quarter fraudulent loans, claiming 49 percent of those reported. Orlando came in second with 18 percent. Just 4 percent of the bad loans came from the Tampa Bay area - a statistic that may surprise industry observers given several recent criminal convictions and investigations of people involved in high-profile mortgage scams in the area.

For all states, the top fraud incident was general application misrepresentation, which includes providing the wrong Social Security number or different signatures for the same applicant. Misrepresenting income and employment was the second most reported type of fraud.

California ranked second among the states. Sharing third place are Illinois, Maryland and Michigan.

The research institute, which tracks data for lenders, typically releases mortgage fraud data annually, but decided to launch quarterly reports to help lenders stay on top of fraud trends.