Most people sounds like overstatement. Personally the idea, "to give your child any money as a loan and then let the child claim those assets as his or her own income or saving [...] in support of a loan application," strikes me as obvious fraud. Without data, I would doubt that most homebuyers follow this practice.

I think the author's argument wasn't that this practice is not or should not be a crime, but that the potential criminal penalty - 30 years! - is far too high.