Police Notified Private Data Might Have Been Stolen
A Texas-based mortgage banker disclosed that one of its computer servers was broken into, with the alleged criminals gaining access to customers' social security numbers and other private data.
On Friday, Feb. 10, DHI Mortgage Company Ltd. discovered the breach. The lender said that police have been notified.
Borrowers who were impacted by the breach had completed a loan application on the company's website and closed on a loan with the company.
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GMAC Mistakenly Emails Copy of Default Letter to 100s
A copy of a default notice on a particular property was mistakenly sent in an e-mail blast to hundreds of GMAC Mortgage LLC borrowers. Now the borrowers whose names were identified in the message are talking to an attorney.
Mortgage Crimes Lead to Convictions, Prison
Several criminal cases against mortgage insiders involve the theft of loan files, the fraudulent use of a warehouse line-of-credit and embezzlement. One defendant plead guilty, while two others have been sentenced to prison.
Mortgage Graveyard Litigation
Several lawsuits involving failed or acquired mortgage firms have seen a good deal of activity lately. Issue
Federal Agencies Issue Model Privacy Form
Federal regulators today published a model privacy disclosure for use by financial institutions.
No. 100 Fails
Bank regulators just seized a small Florida bank -- marking the 100th federally insured bank to fail this year. A Florida mortgage company closed and left its files in the dumpster. The tally for mortgage-related failures also reached a new milestone.
FTC Busts Broker for Dumping Files
The Federal Trade Commission has busted a Las Vegas mortgage broker for allegedly discarding hundreds of loan files with personal financial documents and private credit records in a public dumpster.
Countrywide Sued Over Stolen Leads
A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Countrywide Financial Corp. and some of its affiliates over personal customer data that was stolen and sold by a former executive. More than 2 million customers could potentially join the case.
Lender Settles With FTC
The Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement with a Texas-based mortgage company over allegations the company enabled a home seller to regularly use its credit bureau access without establishing procedures to ensure private data was protected. A computer hacker eventually gained unauthorized access to dozens of credit reports and pulled hundreds more.
Illegal Mortgage Leads
For two years, an executive of a Countrywide Financial Corp. unit was successfully operating a mortgage leads business using data he stole from the company. He downloaded the records of 20,000 borrowers each week -- until he was caught.
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