Fraud Education

This is less about fraud and simply more about awareness.  It’s unfortunate, but when you apply for a home loan, the lender pulls your credit report from the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion).  This action triggers a “hard inquiry” signaling to the bureaus that you are in the market for a mortgage.  The credit bureaus then sell this information to other lenders as a “trigger lead” often within 24 hours of your application.  This is a practice that is legal and allowed under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).  This immediately sets you up for targeting by other lenders. Some borrowers report receiving dozens of calls, texts, and emails in a single day offering what may appear to be lower rates without any knowledge of your full credit package in order to secure your business.  These calls often involve very aggressive sales tactics, can be invasive, irritating and often produce highly misleading sales calls.

The good news is that you can stop these by signing up for opt-out by going to OptOutPrescreen.com or call 1-888-5-OPTOUT.  This is the official website for consumers to opt-out of “pre-approved” offers of credit.  You can op-out for five years electronically, or permanently by mailing a form.

You can also register your phone number with the National Do Not Call Registry to reduce unwanted marketing calls.

And in the State of California, there is a new law called California’s DELETE Act which required the state to create a single portal for data brokers deletion requests, known as DROP (Delete Request and Opt-Out Platform).  This allows California residents to send a single request to over 500 registered data brokers to delete their personal information and data brokers must comply with the deletion requests starting August 1, 2026.

While none of this stops illegal scammers, it will stop the legitimate sources of this type of aggressive marketing and may reduce the chances of illegal activity.