Customers of LendingTree, a popular online mortgage lead service, have been informed that their personal information on file has been compromised. Customers use the LendingTree service to have several different banks compete and see who offers the best terms on a mortgage. Consumers provide personal information including their social security number, address, birthday, income and employment information to LendingTree. This information is normally passed on to authorized banks who use the information to determine whether the consumers qualify for a mortgate and, if so, under what terms.
According to LendingTree, former employees colluded with unauthorized mortgage lenders to hack the customer files from 2006 to 2008. LendingTree informed customers of the theft but said that customers were likely not targeted for identity theft or fraud, but that the unauthorized lenders used the personal information to market their own mortgage products to the customers. Still, LendingTree warned customers to check their credit report and place a fraud alert with the credit bureaus.
Whether or not LendingTree customers were victims of identity theft, the security breach is still alarming. Customers expect and trust sites like LendingTree to keep sensitive information secure and confidential. Security breaches like this one cause many people to lose faith in the security and safety of supplying personal information to a supposedly trusted company, whether online or offline. While this could have the positive effect of causing both consumers and businesses to be more cautious, it could also cause many consumers to shy away from traditional forms of credit and turn instead to more expensive, and even predatory, forms of credit.
Tags: Identity Theft, lending tree