{"id":3017,"date":"2008-04-25T07:57:14","date_gmt":"2008-04-25T14:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=3017"},"modified":"2008-04-25T07:57:14","modified_gmt":"2008-04-25T14:57:14","slug":"we-first-warned-you-about-lendingtree-a-year-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3017\/we-first-warned-you-about-lendingtree-a-year-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"We First Warned You About LendingTree A Year Ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

As If The Mortgage Lending World Didn’t Have Enough Bad News… <\/strong><\/p>\n

I wrote about LendingTree’s practice of giving their customers information out to multiple lenders<\/a> back in March of 2007. Now we find out that their nefarious plot went much further than just that.<\/p>\n

LendingTree has told its customers that former employees helped unauthorized mortgage lenders hack into its systems and steal customer information from 2006 to 2008.<\/em><\/p>\n

The incident reveals just how aggressive the mortgage loan business was during the height of the housing boom, and also raises fears for consumers who share their information with companies that help them shop around for the best deal. And it highlights what experts say is an often overlooked source of data theft — the inside job.<\/em><\/p>\n

According to a letter sent to customers recently, former LendingTree LLC employees shared “confidential passwords” with lenders, who in turn used the login information to “access LendingTree’s customer loan request forms.” <\/em><\/p>\n

The forms contained critical personal data, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, income and employment information. The company said the lenders did not use the information to commit identity theft or fraud, but simply to “market their own mortgage loans to … customers.” (read the rest of the story here)<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hat tip to Bob Sullivan over at the Red Tape Chronicles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I can’t say that I am surprised at all, really.<\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As If The Mortgage Lending World Didn’t Have Enough Bad News… I wrote about LendingTree’s practice of giving their customers information out to multiple lenders back in March of 2007. Now we find out that their nefarious plot went much further than just that. LendingTree has told its customers that former employees helped unauthorized mortgage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,26,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-dirty-laundry","7":"category-lending","8":"category-real-estate","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1141,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1141\/countrywide-lendingtree-bear-stearns\/","url_meta":{"origin":3017,"position":0},"title":"Countrywide, LendingTree and Bear Stearns Mortgage","author":"Doug Quance","date":"March 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The lending roller coaster is just starting to roll Most real estate professionals have to deal with an occasional unexpected consequence involving lenders... but not a string of them like this revelation. A client of mine decided to be a generous friend. He's not a wealthy man in the strictest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1173,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1173\/from-mortgage-company-personal-introduction-sell-stuff-here-warm-closing\/","url_meta":{"origin":3017,"position":1},"title":"From Mortgage Company: [Personal Introduction], [Sell Stuff Here], [Warm Closing]","author":"Dan Green","date":"March 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"So, I get a lot of spam. Maybe you do, too. Usually, my filter stops them. Sometimes, it doesn't. Today, an email from \"Mortgage Company\" got through the gate. It doesn't happen often and I nearly fell off my chair laughing when I saw the subject line: \"Hurry to lower\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"SPAM via email","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markdrew.co.uk\/UserFiles\/Image\/spam.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2884,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2884\/zillowcoms-long-awaited-mortgage-lending-service-to-offer-anonymous-customized-loan-quotes-to-consumers-affording-loan-originators-the-opportunity-to-compete-transparently-for-free-mortgage-leads\/","url_meta":{"origin":3017,"position":2},"title":"Zillow.com’s long-awaited mortgage lending service offers anonymous customized loan quotes to consumers, affording loan originators the opportunity to compete transparently for free mortgage leads","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Seattle-based real estate start-up Zillow.com tonight releases its long-anticipated mortgage lending product. We've known for nearly a month that Zillow's offering would include working loan originators in some fashion. What becomes clear tonight is that Zillow will basically be acting as a hands-off intermediary between mortgage-seeking clients and loan originators.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10856,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10856\/2010-mortgage-broker-renaissance\/","url_meta":{"origin":3017,"position":3},"title":"2010 Mortgage Broker Renaissance","author":"Brian Brady","date":"January 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Is the business of broking mortgage loans dead?\u00a0 About two years ago, Morgan Brown predicted our demise on Blown Mortgage.\u00a0 His conclusion was that the industry would need a scapegoat for the poor lending practices and that \"blaming\" mortgage brokers was convenient (and not necessarily fair).\u00a0 His conclusion suggested that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2958,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2958\/zillowcoms-mortgage-marketplace-brings-anonymous-apples-to-apples-mortgage-rate-quotes-to-consumers-free-consumer-leads-to-lenders\/","url_meta":{"origin":3017,"position":4},"title":"Zillow.com’s Mortgage Marketplace brings anonymous apples-to-apples mortgage rate quotes to consumers, free consumer leads to lenders","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link): \u00a0Zillow.com's Mortgage Marketplace brings anonymous apples-to-apples mortgage rate quotes to consumers, free consumer leads to lenders Wouldn't it be great if you could get a broad array of mortgage quotes without having to make dozens of phone\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3874,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3874\/a-proposal-to-improve-mortgage-lending\/","url_meta":{"origin":3017,"position":5},"title":"A Proposal to Improve Mortgage Lending….","author":"Tom Vanderwell","date":"August 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Since there are a variety of licensing, regulation, education, criminal background check proposals bouncing around in an effort to clean up the mortgage world, I thought I'd throw out my own proposal on how to improve mortgage lending. I'm proposing that as part of the training for becoming a mortgage\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}