The cyber-nightmare continued, as the mixed-up mortgage lender then reported Decker to the credit bureaus, claiming he was 30 days late with his payments, "which cost me a number of points on my credit report," said Decker.
Though banks and other mortgage lenders portray online banking as routine, experts in the field say there are still common snafus in the system, and potentially significant security problems.
For instance, there's the threat of theft of data from an insecure Internet site.
"With the growth of online mortgage applications, there has been an increase in problems," said James Walsh, editor of a new book called "Identity Theft: How to Protect Your Name, Your Credit and Your Vital Information, and What to Do When Someone Hijacks Any of These" (Silver Lake).
"There have even been incidents of identity theft where the thieves have refinanced someone's mortgage. The customer doesn't find out about it until the note holder sends back the latest payment and tells you, 'We don't hold this debt anymore,' " he said. Walsh's book advises those who manage their mortgages online, or who are shopping for loans on the Internet, to regularly double-check their accounts and credit histories for accuracy.
One way these problems have proliferated is through the shenanigans of Internet criminals who send out viruses and worms. These hackers are no longer just pimple-faced geeks living in their mothers' basements. They are often sophisticated criminals who are seeking Internet accounts to hijack.
"I love to pay my bills online and my mortgage online, and I hardly have any stamps in the house, but it is now the Wild West out there," said Roger Thompson, vice president of product development at PestPatrol Inc., an anti-virus software developer in Carlisle, Pa.
Experts advised caution when dealing with "mom and pop" online lending operations, mortgage brokers and the like, whose sites might not be as secure as those of the major banks.
According to Larsen, although security is a big issue for online shoppers, data privacy is emerging as a key concern.
He has spearheaded efforts in his home state, California, to regulate the activities of banks and others that share financial data, even using the initiative process to get a measure on the ballot.
Larsen is concerned that as the sophistication of databases grows, and more banks merge or acquire other financial services companies, new practices will emerge. For example, he is concerned that a credit card company will be tracking the books you bought at an online bookseller, or the locations of the places where you have vacationed.
Larsen said he wants to see the government give consumers the right to opt out of all financial list-sharing agreements between companies because such agreements give businesses the ability to track every consumer purchase.
"Profiling is increasing, and consumers are going to start to back off from using financial services online," he said. "We're risking the loss of consumer confidence by the proliferation of this technology. We are there now, and have been there for a couple of years. You can use database technology to efficiently track purchases, and predict risk, and companies are crossing the line."
