By Brandon Konieczny, Princeton Mortgage Wholesale
Do you ever get a call from a number that you don’t know only to find out that it is a telemarketer or someone trying to sell you something? I think this question is very obvious, but it leads to another question, how are these individuals getting my ‘personal’ information? NAMB (Nation Association of Mortgage Brokers) is starting to react to the same questions regarding trigger leads that are being generated by the 3 major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian and Transunion) and asking for a ban on the sale of this information. If you are not familiar, a mortgage trigger lead is generated when an individual has a credit pull resulting from an anticipated purchase or refinance. This information is then compiled and a report containing an individual’s name, contact information and other data points are being offered for sale to other mortgage professionals. Ring.. Ring.. Ring starts the unwanted phone calls all because your credit was pulled for a purchase of a new home.
The word ‘personal’ is becoming obsolete in a world where data is so accessible and even being sold for a profit. It’s interesting that this information is becoming so available to willing and paying parties as not too long-ago Equifax was hit with a HUGE data breach that potentially compromised 143 million individual’s sensitive information. Don’t you think that with this breach there would be MORE caution and protection on customers information? Well that’s what NAMB is setting out to do as they wrote to Congress asking for a ban through PROTECT Act of 2017, which happened to stem from the previously mentioned data breach…. hmm interesting… as this seems ironic to request a ban on the very data being provided from the company that caused the Act to be created in the first place?
I find it very interesting and concerning that there is potentially so much of my information out there and that companies are paying significant amounts of money for this information, all because my credit was pulled for a mortgage loan application. Well the good news is, there are resources to help eliminate the amount of information out there, so have at it and start locking up your information now! Oh, and I really hope NAMB is successful in their proposal to ban these trigger leads both personally and professionally.
Opt Out: http://www.optoutprescreen.com/ Do Not Call: https://www.donotcall.gov/
Namaste!
Brandon
Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash
The opinions expressed in this post are the sole view of the writer and do not reflect the opinion of Princeton Mortgage Corporation.