It's part of the American dream.

Leave the Caribbean for the United States in search of greener pastures. Get a good education for yourself or the children or both, and sooner rather than later own a piece of property.

That's the story from Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island to New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Florida and Georgia. Indeed, wherever immigrants live the dream is alive and well.

"People want to have a house to call their own for themselves and their children, that's a motivating factor in coming to the United States from the Caribbean and elsewhere," Charles Hynes, Brooklyn's District Attorney (DA), said. "Unfortunately, far too many people are falling victims to mortgage fraud in the process."

But that's not all to the tragic story of what's happening in Brooklyn and the other boroughs," added the DA.

"Certainly a number of the cases of fraud we have before us involve both victims who are from the islands and perpetrators, who at least claim to have connections to the islands," Hynes explained. "We are in the early stages of our newly established mortgage unit and we are gathering data to determine the places of origins of both the victims and the perpetrators. Right now, the big concern is doing a triage, going after the strongest and time critical cases. What I can say for a fact is that we do have cases of both victimization of people from the islands and victimization by people from the islands."

In other words, West Indians often prey on people from back home.

That's why Hynes and some of his top investigators and prosecutors are warning homeowners facing foreclosure, seeking to refinance their properties or those about to sign on the dotted line for a mortgage, to be careful, extremely careful.

And if Caribbean immigrants, who have already bought property, are now worrying if they were victims of fraud, they should step forward and report their concerns to the DA.

"If you think you are a victim make the phone call," he said. "Don't make the judgment on you own. We will explain whether or not fraud has occurred."

Armed with an $875,000 federal grant secured by U.S. Senator Charles "Chuck" Schumer, the DA has created a new real estate fraud unit to deal with the "flood" of mortgage fraud cases now plaguing New Yorkers.

And what kinds of cases are being investigated?

"Fraud is a result of ingenuity," he said. "Anything that needs to be falsified can be falsified," he said. "We see cases in which bank statements are falsified, W2s (income tax documents), deeds are forged, phony death certificates, phony funeral expenses. Anything that needs to be done to effect fraud can be done. The majority of these cases involve some degree of criminal conduct."

Hynes listed the following as examples:

*Theft of homes through forged deeds.

*Foreclosure scams where victims have unwittingly signed over ownership of property.

*Falsification of borrower assets by a mortgage broker.

*Forging of appraisal reports in order to close a mortgage loan that the borrower can't really afford.

*Falsification of business records.

*Rescue scams designed to con people into believing that the will avoid foreclosure when in reality nothing has changed despite the money spent for the help, and in some cases, the property even changes hands without the owners realizing what has happened.

*Empty promises of financial help using the Obama Administration's stimulus package to lure people into deals that don't materialize.

Attempts by the New York State legislature haven't worked effectively. Two years ago, the Senate and the Assembly passed the Home Theft Prevention Action designed to eliminate foreclosure rescue scams. The trouble is that the DA's office "has yet to find a case that fits the Act's parameters," Hynes explained.

That's why the legislature passed a law late last year that established a new crime, residential mortgage fraud, considered a minor addition to the weapons prosecutors have at their disposal to crack down on scammers.

But there is yet another roadblock, according to the DA.

"None of these initiatives provide for criminal sanctions that would deter would be -criminals," Hynes said.

That's where the mortgage fraud unit may come in. It is expected to provide the missing force, sustained prosecution to end the current fraud crisis.

What has fueled the rise in fraud cases is a combination of the poor economy and the stale real estate market.

"The real estate market nationally has gone way done and there are pockets, and Brooklyn is one of them, where, while there has been a decline in values, the market has not collapsed," he said. "In other areas the bubble has burst, while in Brooklyn, the bubble has only been pin-pricked and is hissing. Values are still near historic highs."

The hard truth is that many Caribbean home owners, who are looking to refinance their mortgages, are considered prime targets for home medication scams.

"When they are unable to get legitimate refinancing due to their credit history or because of the current market conditions, they are ripe for these scams," Hynes said. "Economic times breed the fraud."

According to the DA, the mortgage fraud unit will have five attorneys, including a chief, five financial investigators, a detective and a paralegal, "all of whom would focus attention exclusively on cases involving real estate crimes," Hynes said.