(HT to Alex Stenback)
We all know that most online mortgage aggregators are champions of selling and re-selling and re-selling any information you put online. They also have been linked in urban legend to unscrupulous lenders with varying degrees of bait-n-switch tactics.
A recent incident with LendingTree - which takes a short loan application and farms it out to national lenders - highlights the real problem with throwing your personally identifiable information online. Yes, even with recent innovations in “secure” protocols like SSL.
Apparently, LendingTree had employees who were re-selling borrower information to non-affiliated mortgage brokers (and maybe others).
“several former employees” may have shared confidential passwords with “a handful” of lenders that were not approved by the company. The lenders then used those passwords to access customer information files that contained mortgage request data such as name, address, e-mail address, phone number, Social Security number, income and employment information. The files did not contain credit card information, LendingTree said…. The company said it does not believe the disclosure led to identity theft or fraudulent financial activity, but recommended customers check their credit reports for suspicious activity.”
Needless to say, this underscores the benefit of dealing with a local or regional direct lender like First Ohio Home Finance. Nothing beats being able to look in the loan officer’s eye and personally seeing where they conduct business.
Don’t trust your information or your mortgage to just anyone - the result could be more than you bargained for!
