Mortgage Telemarketing Gets Scrutiny

Actress, filmmaker and author Adryenn Ashley reads over one of the numerous mortgage solicitations she has received in the mail at her home office in Petaluma, Tuesday, May 22, 2007. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg) (Eric Risberg - AP)

"It is absolutely false to say the first lender or broker that a consumer goes to is definitely going to have the best offer," said Stuart Pratt, director of the Consumer Data Industry Association, the credit reporting agencies' trade group.

Pratt insists that the credit agencies, led by the three largest _ Experian, TransUnion and and Equifax _ check their trigger leads against anti-telemarketing Do Not Call lists.

However, it's unclear how well that step works or is being followed. Ashley, for example, believes she was already on the Do Not Call list. Same with Matthew Tuttle, who runs a wealth-management firm in Stamford, Conn.

"I'm getting these calls five months after I refinanced," Tuttle said. "Refinancing is a pain enough _ I'm not doing it again, especially not for a recording," he said.

The length of Tuttle's onslaught might not be unusual. Pace University publicist Cara Halstead Cea said she and her husband have averaged at least a call a day for 14 months now. "We understand you are looking to refinance," the callers still intone. The frenzy prompted the couple to get caller ID so they can answer the phone with their own script: "If this is about refinancing, we're all set. Please take us off your list."

Mortgage triggers have been sold for at least a few years, but they have become more of an issue recently. Kiley at the Massachusetts Bankers Association believes this is because the home-buying binge early in the decade caused an explosive growth of mortgage brokers and mortgage companies that now, in a cooling market, are redoubling efforts to win business.

Trigger leads also have cascaded because of a vast data-collecting infrastructure created by the credit bureaus and amplified by innumerable information brokers who serve as resellers. "Borrowers Trigger'd Yesterday Delivered via email to you Today," reads an ad on Google for one broker's site, MortgageTriggers.com.

Such resellers offer to filter trigger alerts for mortgage lenders by dozens of criteria, including consumers' location, credit scores and home value. DailyTriggerLeads.com says buyers of its alerts can "eliminate Hispanics or select them."

The owner of one marketing service _ who refused to be identified by name, fearing negative repercussions for his company _ said he has been selling mortgage triggers for almost two years, accounting for about 20 percent of his revenue. He said he presumes his product increases the chance a consumer will get a mortgage offer that keeps the mortgage banker honest and the playing field fair.

That's how he can sleep at night, he said.

___