OurTop10 Research · October 2026
New research from OurTop10 shows nearly one in five Australians (18%) say they have used artificial intelligence (AI) to create or alter documents for a home loan application.
Bank statements are the most common target
Bank statements topped the list of documents Australians reported using AI to create or alter (10%), followed by employment documents (9%) and payslips or proof of income (6%). A further 3% said they had used AI to create or alter a competing lender’s interest rate offer. Respondents could select more than one option.
Gen Z and Millennials lead the way
Younger Australians were far more likely to say they had used AI to create or alter documents for a home loan application or negotiation: 56% of Gen Z and 36% of Millennials. That is roughly three times and twice the national rate.
Bank statements or financial records were the most common documents in both groups (33% of Gen Z and 23% of Millennials), followed by employment documents (19% and 17%) and payslips or proof of income (19% and 11%).
What OurTop10 says
AI tools are evolving faster than many lenders’ ability to detect false documents, and some are still relying on legacy verification systems that weren’t built for this. As AI improves, fabricated paperwork could become harder to spot, even for trained staff and automated checks.
Higher interest rates are reducing borrowing capacity, particularly for first-home buyers, and leaving some existing borrowers stuck in mortgage prison because they no longer qualify for a refinance. Some alter their paperwork to inflate their income or understate their expenses, seeing it as a way around those hurdles and a chance to ‘beat the banks’.
It highlights the case for secure data sharing between the ATO and banks, with the borrower’s consent. That would let lenders verify declared income against an independent government source, rather than relying on a PDF that can be altered in seconds with AI.
Borrowers should know that altering a payslip or bank statement is fraud. If they’re caught, their application can be declined, their loan called in, or they could face criminal charges. And if it slips through, they may end up with a loan they can’t afford to repay.
Methodology
OurTop10 commissioned the survey from PureProfile, with a nationally representative sample of 1,018 Australians, stratified by gender, age and location. Respondents could select multiple document types, so the individual percentages should not be added together. The 18% headline figure is the complement of the 82% who selected “No, I have never used AI to create or alter these documents”, using the displayed rounded percentages.
Using this research
If you use this information, please link to https://ourtop10.com.au/reports/ai-mortgage-document-fraud/
Media contact
Mansour Soltani, Head of Research, OurTop10 · 0405 500 981 · [email protected]