Investigators admit, mortgage fraud is hard to grasp.

That it is a complex white-collar crime. Already dozens have been arrested, but no bust has been bigger than the one unveiled Thursday.

Investigators announced indictments against 37 people. They allegedly took out $5.6 million in fraudulent loans on 17 houses in Houston and other parts of Harris County.

"These individuals range from loan processors to mortgage brokers to real estate agents,” said Harris County Prosecutor Lester Blizzard.

Sources tell 11News John Rezai and Delmonte Mobley are two of the 37 indicted.

Here's how it the fraud supposedly worked.

Criminals find a house for sale; lets say for $200,000. Then they get a phony appraisal, usually conducted by someone in on the scheme.

That appraisal is done for maybe for double the home's value: In our scenario that’s $400,000.

Then they start looking for an investor.

Someone to actually put the house in their name that would be using their good credit for the closing and title.

The bank loans $400,000 for the house. The crooks pay the seller the $200,000 asking price and pocket the other $200,000.

"Payments are usually never made and the house ends up in foreclosure,” said Blizzard. “The foreclosures hurt our community in that there are a number of vacant homes that just sit vacant for maybe a year at a time."

When a house ends up in foreclosure, it drives down the value of neighboring homes. Just one of the ways mortgage fraud costs us all.