Is Your Lender Prepared for the Equifax Data Breach?
The data breach revealed by Equifax last week where hackers
stole the personal data of 143 million consumers from the credit reporting
agency is one of the largest in history!
For people applying for a mortgage, they could get a shock of their
lifetime when their credit reports are pulled.
“Bar none, this is the worst data breach we’ve ever had,” identity
theft expert Rob Douglas told Realtor.com. “This is the one everyone is worried
about.”
It has always been a good idea, but it is more important
than ever to get prequalified before you start the home buying process. Borrowers could experience excessive debt or
worse – late payments that they were not aware of on their credit report. Untangling fraud on your credit report is
possible, but it is not something to be undertaken when a borrower is in
contract. Our experience is that it
takes from 30 to 180 to remove fraud from a credit report – not timeframes that
sellers are comfortable waiting for – especially with the uncertainty attached
to the problem.
What makes this breach so bad is that typically a hacker
will get a small piece of information, such as a Social Security number or
another breach where they got someone’s credit card number. This breach resulted in hackers getting
everything – name, social, address, and credit card #’s. Scary stuff.
If you have clients or potential clients that are interested
in knowing more about their credit, The Easterbrook Team is here to help
them.
