Mortgage Spam Calls and Mail

In this day and age where spam calls, robo dialing, and “I have been trying to reach you about your extended warranty,” are prevalent, we get a ton of questions about mortgage spam calls and emails. We want to arm our customers with the knowledge to protect themselves from spammers and identity theft, so here are some of our frequently asked questions:

“Help! I just applied for a mortgage with you guys, and now I am getting a TON of spam calls and emails about getting a mortgage. Did you guys sell my information??”

• No, and it is actually illegal for your mortgage company to sell or share your information without your express written consent. Even if you wanted to transfer your mortgage from us to another company, for some reason, it would take a slew of paperwork and forms for us to be able to do so.

“Okay, so then how did they get my information?”

• A well-kept secret in the mortgage industry is the act of buying information from the credit bureaus. Mortgage companies pay to be notified when you have a mortgage related pull on your credit score, and then they begin reaching out to you to try and get your business. If you pay for a service that notifies you about any changes to your credit report, it’s just like that, and it’s also pretty immediate.
• The companies are able to get your cell phone number from your report, as well as your email and mailing addresses. When you opened an account for a mobile phone or utilities, you probably gave them your Social Security number, which means your phone number and addresses are now linked to your Social Security number, and thus, show up on a credit report. Some credit reports can even show your place of work, as well as previous addresses you have listed.

“I already closed on my home, but I am STILL getting calls, emails, and mail from mortgage companies. Why? What is the point?”

• Now that you have closed on your home, your ownership has become public record. Virtually anyone these days can do a public records request; the record of sale on the house will list the address, your full legal name, the date of purchase, the final purchase price, the loan amount, and the name of your mortgage company. Some mortgage companies will take this information and try to use it to get you to refinance with them, either for a lower rate or to get cash out of your equity.
• Scammers, on the other hand, will send vague letters with a high sense of urgency to trick you into making a panicked call where you share personal information. These scammers even use our company name somewhere in their letter or on their envelope to make it look like it is coming from us.

If you have any questions or concerns about your mortgage after closing, the best thing to do is to call your Loan Officer. Use the number you already have, not some random 1-800 number on a piece of mail or from a scam call. Your Loan Officer is your main point of contact here, and they will be able to answer or help with any post-closing questions you may have. If they do not have the direct answer, they will steer you in the right direction of someone else that can help you better. If you ever have a question about the validity of an email, text, or call, just call your Loan Officer. We would rather get the call asking “did you send me this email?” than you end up with your identity stolen because you gave some stranger on the other side of the world your personal information.

If you are continuing to get spam calls on a daily basis, the best practice is to list your number on the National Do Not Call Registry (linked here.) If you continue to get those calls, you can answer, and tell them that you are on the Registry, and the company continuing to call you is a violation of the CAN-SPAM Act, for which they can be fined. Ask them not to call you again, and tell them you will report them to the registry. Note: this will only work on legitimate, U.S.-based companies. If a call center is on the other side of the world (and more likely a spam) the CAN-SPAM Act will not apply to them. If a company in the United States continues to call you after your express verbal or written request to stop, you can report them to the United States Government here.