Wednesday, January 3, 2007 - Protecting Your Identity and Business

Did you know that as soon as you pull a mortgage credit report for your borrower, the information is instantly sold to lead generating sites that these are people who are in the market to finance a house?

It’s hard to believe that the people you are paying to order the credit reports are turning around and selling your borrower off as a “hot lead!”

It’s true.  While the data you’ve collected about the loan application is not shared with the lead sites, the borrower’s name and contact information are sold.

You need to educate your borrowers and let them know that they may receive lots of enticing calls for mortgages and they should BEWARE.  I’ve heard countless stories from loan officers that lost applicants because the borrower got a phone call from someone who bought the lead and turned around and promised a drastically lower rate and/or fees.

Unfortunately, by the time the borrower gets to the closing table, the deal is never what was promised.

As if that wasn’t enough, people also can be victimized by identity theft this way.  When they entered into the application with you, the borrower knew and trusted you with their private identity information.  However, they can get suckered into the process with someone who they don’t know or trust and that person could steal their identity.  It has happened!

The best way to have your identity and borrower protected is to have them opt out of unsolicited credit card and mortgage offers, and to take their name off of direct marketing lists.

They can log on to www.optoutprescreen.com  or call 1-888-5-OPTOUT.

You should too!