So you’ve just pressed the submit button on your mortgage application, and next thing you know you get a call from someone claiming to work with the lender. There was a glitch in the application, they say, and you’ll need to do it again over the phone. Stop right there—it’s mortgage spam.
While this scenario might sound far-fetched, it happened recently to a client of Jennifer Beeston’s. “They were trying to steal the client by tricking them,” says Beeston, mortgage lender and senior vice president at Rate.com. “It was a completely different company.”
Just one more hurdle faced by mortgage shoppers, this mortgage spam is made possible by something known as the “trigger lead.” When a consumer submits a loan application that triggers a hard credit pull, typical for a mortgage application, credit bureaus may notify other lenders that purchase leads from the bureaus fitting certain criteria such as loan amount and loan type. They use this lead to reach out and pitch their own loans, justifying the intrusion by claiming that it helps consumers get better deals.
Critics say that trigger leads are not only unhelpful, but also predatory.
There’s enough momentum behind the criticisms that a bill seeking to ban trigger leads passed the U.S. Senate in December 2024, under the title of the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act. When the bill might be taken up by the House remains unclear.
While a nationwide ban could be some time off, if you’re hoping to buy a house in 2025 we’ll tell you what you need to know about opting out of trigger lead spam.
A mortgage sales environment ripe for bad actors
The mortgage industry has not seen the decline in rates and surge in business that they might have expected just a few quarters ago. With the average 30-year conventional loan rate closer to 7% than 6%, you can smell the industry’s desperation.
“There are supposed to be rules but it’s the Wild West right now,” says Beeston. In particular, she notes bad actors may target veterans applying for VA home loans by pretending to be from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.
“They make it look like it’s coming from the VA,” she says. “It’s illegal to use the VA’s seal, and you’re not supposed to say you’re from the VA but there’s not enough crackdown.”
Beeston added that even if there were more crackdown by the government, there’s still the possibility of new spammers rising up even as old ones are taken down. The best bulwark against this type of activity, she says, is to ensure consumers are as educated as possible.
The Senate’s Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act would have amended the Fair Credit Reporting Act to prevent trigger leads. Here’s how the bill’s official summary, provided on congress.gov, explains it:
“This bill prohibits a credit reporting agency from providing a consumer's credit report to a third party in connection with a residential mortgage transaction unless (1) the third party provides documentation certifying that it has the consumer's consent; or (2) the third party has originated the mortgage, is the current loan servicer, or has a current specified banking relationship with the consumer.”
Trigger leads are an unpleasant reality for mortgage shoppers
Brendan McKay, a Maryland-based mortgage broker and chief advocacy officer at the Broker Action Coalition, compares the situation to if your medical prescriptions could be sold. The BAC has thrown its support behind legislation to get rid of trigger leads.
“Let's say your doctor gave you a prescription for an embarrassing medical condition,” says McKay. “As soon as you walk out of the office, your phone rings. It's CVS telling you that they can save you 10% on your rash cream. As soon as you hang up, you have a voicemail from Walgreens and a text from Rite Aid.”
Even if such an arrangement might occasionally save you money on prescriptions, McKay notes that it probably wouldn’t be very popular—and says consumers should be able to comparison shop mortgage rates and fees on their own terms.
It’s not just when you’re purchasing a home that trigger leads can result in an overload of calls and letters. Andy Shook and his wife, Jamie, residents of Rock Hill, South Carolina, refinanced their mortgage in December for a better rate and to tap equity for a home improvement project.
“We got the paperwork submitted, everything goes through, you go through the 72-hour right of rescission, and the floodgates opened at the mailbox,” Shook says.
The mortgage broker who the family worked with on the refi helped them opt their phone numbers out, but that didn’t stop the snail mail from coming. Some of the letters even looked like checks, being designed with perforated edges. But Shook, who works in the cybersecurity field, urges folks to exercise an abundance of caution when facing unexpected calls or mailers.
“Call the person you’re working with—don’t call the number that’s on the piece of paper,” he says.
What the credit bureaus have to say
Fortune reached out to Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—typically considered the big three credit bureaus in terms of consumer information—to request comment for this article. The Consumer Data Industry Association, representing the bureaus, provided a statement:
“Mortgage lenders should not inundate consumers with unwanted telephone solicitations. The industry proposal does not address the underlying problem of telephone solicitations. We believe any legislation solution should address the root cause—telephone calls—and maintain a competitive market that allows the consumer to shop for a better deal.”
The CDIA asserted that shopping for a mortgage can mean saving thousands of dollars and helping people afford the home they want. The association also notes that current laws require lenders to provide opt-out notices in written offers to avoid these types of “pre-screened offers.”
How to opt out of trigger leads
There’s good news and bad news when it comes to opting out of mortgage trigger leads. The good news is that by registering your phone number on the Do Not Call Registry, donotcall.gov, you should be able to dramatically cut down the number of unwanted phone calls you receive. And you can stop some mailings by registering on optoutprescreen.com.
Beeston recommends taking these steps a couple weeks in advance of applying for a mortgage. But the bad news is that while taking those two steps can help, you should still expect to receive junk mail. And, while lenders aren’t supposed to text message you without first receiving your consent, that doesn’t mean some of the less scrupulous out there won’t try it.
Trigger leads: An unequal benefit
Those who traffic in trigger leads might contend they provide a benefit to the consumer. But Beeston of Rate.com notes that there seems to be a clear preference for borrowers a lender might hope to be able to poach and profit from, such as those applying for larger loan amounts.
“If I have a client who has a $100,000 loan, they’re not getting any calls,” she says. “The argument they’re providing a benefit to the American consumer—it’s not an equal benefit.”
