Your Private Information is For Sale
Rhonda Porter on 01 24, 2007
This subject totally irks me…it is just so completely wrong. The three major credit bureaus are selling personal 
information to hundreds of mortgage companies throughout the country as soon as a credit report is pulled from a mortgage lender. You visit your preferred lender to get preapproved for a mortgage, and whammo…within hours you may start getting calls from other unscrupulous lenders who will even go so far as to pretend to be working with the preferred lender. You’ll also start noticing mailers appearing in your mailbox offering special rates and programs, too. You’re going to feel very popular and probably very annoyed.
Private information is being sold without your consent or knowledge. These mortgage companies buying these trigger list (also referred to as prescreening) are generally “fly by night” companies that operate several states away and are solely interested in offering you a “bait and switch” mortgage offer. These lenders will call you repeatedly and mail you solicitation after solicitation in hopes of deceiving you. They often offer terms that are too good to be true and misleading. Not only is this practice deceitful, it opens the possibility to identity theft.
Here are a few suggestions on easy steps you can take—even if you’re not considering getting preapproved or having your credit report pulled.
Opt Out of Prescreened Credit Offers
This will stop creditors from viewing your personal credit information
without your written consent. In addition, it will cut down on the junk mail (unwanted credit card solicitations). This alone lowers your chances of becoming a victim of identity theft. You can opt out by visiting www.optoutprescreen.com or by calling 888-567-8688. Try do this one week before having your credit ran by any lender, if possible.
Add your phone number to the Do Not Call List
This can be done online by visiting www.donotcall.gov or by calling 888-382-1222. Remember to make sure to add both your home and mobile cell phone numbers. This takes 30 days to be in effect.
When you receive phone calls from violators…get on line and report them.When you receive phone calls from violators…get on line and .You would think this practice of reselling your personal information during this day and age of identity theft and fraud would be illegal. The FDIC states “while the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) does not expressly authorize it, prescreening is permissible if the institution follows certain rules. The act permits prescreening if the institution makes a firm offer of credit to each consumer whose name appears on the prescreened list.”
You would think this practice of reselling your personal information during this day and age of identity theft and fraud would be illegal. I have ranted about this before…and was optimistic that this would be resolved by now. I’m sorry to say, it’s not…yet.
About the Author: Rhonda Porter
- Author's website: http://www.mortgageporter.com
- More posts by Rhonda Porter
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17 Responses to “Your Private Information is For Sale”
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Trigger leads are a bad proposition for all parties. The consumer gets hounded. The lead purchasers call under a suspicious “lead-in”. The original originator is faced with “noise” while trying to obtain financing.
What kind of business id built by calling someone and saying, “I can beat that quote!”
It’s terrible. I personally have been called sometimes when I work from my home office. I tell the caller I’m on the DNC list and they don’t care! Then I tell them I’m a lender and they tell me they can beat my rate.
Well let’s see. Data is a commodity; it’s worth money. The companies who want to continue to send us pre-screened credit offers know they can make big money by tapping into our credit histories.
These companies would be….the big banks, right? The banking lobby has a pretty powerful warchest of money that they can use to influence what happens in DC. I don’t see this changing anytime soon.
Rhonda, please correct me if I’m wrong: Is it mostly the huge banks that are doing this? (Capital One comes to mind).
Thanks.
[...] Your Private Information is For SaleThis subject totally irks meit is just so completely wrong. The three major credit bureaus are selling personal information to hundreds of mortgage… [...]
This information is available to more than just the big banks…it does cost big bucks.
Mortgage News Daily reports on an ad from one the of big 3 bureaus “There are also ads online for several companies marketing leads that sound very much as though they must be coming straight from a credit bureau. One of the most visible marketers advertises thusly:
“(Our Products) are ideal for:
• Automotive lenders
• Banks
• Credit card issuers
• Mortgage and home-equity lenders
• Retailers
Now you can dramatically increase the response rate to your pre-approved credit offers by reaching consumers at the precise time they actively are shopping for credit. With (our product), you can identify opportunities as they occur and make firm credit offers, as often as daily, to consumers who meet your credit criteria.”
One has to figure that these sales leads are available not only to lenders but also to companies who then resell them, probably in smaller packages to those seeking leads.”
This morsel is straight from Equifax:
“Increase your likelihood of a sale. Consumers with a recent credit inquiry, new trade line, or loan maturation event have a higher statistical probability to open new credit than traditional credit pre-screened populations. Increase your response rate Focus marketing dollars on consumers with a demonstrated need for credit by identifying “in market” consumers with TargetPoint Acquistion . Some customers have seen a 4-6 time improvement in response rates compared to traditional pre-screening. Delivery of fresh prospects, weekly.
TargetPoint Acquisition delivers “fresh” names on a weekly basis, suppressing previously delivered names for 30, 60, or 90 days. TargetPoint Acquisition enables on-going weekly marketing campaigns, ensuring a constant flow of new customer prospects.”
Consumers are the victems here. The calls they receive immediately following completing a loan ap providing all of their personal financial information are deceptive.
The last person’s comments are on target…many of these calls are being generated by large banks. It can be a real problem. The bigger issue may be the bait and switch type operators who use callers who do not understand the mortgage business itself. They are just “smiling and dialing” and hoping to pass on a lead to someone else…at whatever the cost or expectation to the unknowing person on the other end of the call. Not too different from all of those internet bait and switch operators/advertisers as well. It’s a fine line between hindering free trade and protecting the consumer, maybe the solution lies somewhere in requiring a registration by the consumer to receive these types of solicitations rather than the consumer having to “opt out”…where by the way, there are similarly named websites looking to obtain your social security number and personal info under false pretenses….
BP
The consumer signs privacy disclosures with their preferred lender at application stating that their information will not be used for anything other than facilitating loan approval.
The preferred lender is not the one reselling the consumers information…the bureaus are.
This is a complete conflict of interest.
[...] Triggering My Hot Spot February 14, 2007 I have blogged about this before…it is really one of my “hot spots”. This morning, not only did I receive an email from this company (oh, I mean SPAM) stating that this is information that I requested, which I did not, it is about something I am absolutely against: selling consumer’s information when they’ve had a credit report pulled to become preapproved. [...]
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I have had a horrid experience in the last few days with Skype.
My Skype ID was hijacked by someone else and I have been reporting it to Skype repeatedly on an hourly basis.
There was about $40.00 in my Skype out account but what I am more worried about is that it is linked to my PayPal account.
No action has been taken by Skype except to say that someone with the email of antyposter@hotmail.com has now got my Skype ID.
My many pleas for something to be done about it after that one email from Skype have not been answered.
This is a desperate plea for help from the Internet community as Skype is not responding. What can I do?
Jag, I don’t have Skype…I’ll check with a few RCG members who do to see if they have any suggestions.
Jag, I think all the RCG members are in the same boat in that we wouldn’t know how to help. Some of the other technology-related blogs, as oppose to real estate-related, might be able to get you an ear to someone at Skype. Good luck.
[...] Your Private Information Is For Sale By Rhonda Porter [...]
[...] 3-Your Private Information is For Sale… by Rhonda Porter [...]
Hey, you made the Real estate undressed top 7. Glad I found this post through his blog. This is good information for anyone applying for a loan. Great way to look out for your clients.
Thanks so much, Pensacola. I was really surprised how many people are not aware of what the credit bureaus have been up to. I’m very honored to be on RE Undressed’s list of top consumer posts.
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