I was sorting through mail and opened an envelope that I thought was junk mail, from Rocket Mortgage. When I looked at it more closely, I saw it had a name that I don’t recognize at all, but it has my address. I moved into the house 7 years ago and still get mail for the former owners, but it’s not their name either.
The letter says
Mr. Jon Stranger
2 XYZ St (my address)
Mytown, USA
Dear Jon Stranger,
Thank you for giving Rocket Mortgage the opportunity to help you with your home loan. Unfortunately we are unable to offer you financing at this time. We made every effort to help you with your unique financial situation and wanted to remind you of the reasons why we are currently unable to help you with your loan:
*Credit history: Current/previous slow payments, judgments, liens or BK
So, a few questions:
how does it benefit Jon Stranger to apply for a loan using my address?
How could this harm me and my credit?
is there a Federal or other agency to which I should report what looks like credit fraud?
@Stranger_On_A_Train, cool clip, does it mean that somebody could open a line of credit on my home?
And I looked at the letter again and realized that “Jon Stranger” has a unique name. I googled and found 2 people with that name. One of them died in SC 2 years ago. The other lives in the same state as me, but 6 hours away. I don’t know how this info is helpful, though.
As kenobi_65 said, start with Rocket Mortgage and see if they agree it’s an issue and what they plan to do about it. If they drag their feet or say it’s nothing I would immediately contact the major credit rating agencies to ensure this doesn’t leave a black mark on your credit score.
A “hard inquiry” definitely impacts your credit, although it’s not a major factor. So the credit agencies will have a record of anyone trying to hijack your credit. I’m not sure how easy it is to contact them directly about this, but I use the website “creditkarma” that give you easy access to your Transunion and Equifax scores and factors, and a hard pull would show up there.
It is also a good idea for everyone to “freeze” your credit at all the agencies. This blocks all inquiries, so nobody can try to borrow money by stealing your identity. It’s easy to do. Go to the Equifax, Experian, Innovis and Transunion websites and search for how to freeze your credit. I think one of them may have charged me a few bucks, most were free. It’s a little bit of work when you set it all up to identify yourself to them (as it should be), but once it’s done it’s easy to manage. Most of them give you a PIN that will allow you to “unlock” the freeze temporarily (online) when you need to so that someone can check your credit.
Can you find their address (whitepages dot com, online court access, etc) and see if it’s even remotely similar to yours that maybe it was just a typo?
Is the name at all similar to yours (ie same last name) and maybe some databases got merged and resulted in mismatched addresses?
Thanks @Joey_P ! Bingo!
Our names are very different, but yes, his address is similar to mine, just 1 letter apart. Mine is something like “15 Arden Lane” and his is “15 Ardan Lane”. The ZIP is different but has some digits in common, mine is something like 22502 and his is 25621.
My daughter works in retail and sometimes has to mail out orders. She’s done it for several companies and says that some of them use programs for shipping that have an aggressive autofill, so she can see this happening.
I still plan to call Rocket Mortgage and complain, being that credit information is confidential and shouldn’t get mixed up this way.
I know it is 5am and no coffee yet, but it seems to me that their credit score is a non-issue. I doubt even Rocket Mortgage will be fooled by someone using the OP’s SSN but a different name. Instead my biggest concern would be someone getting a loan on MY house and then in about a year being foreclosed on when the scammer didn’t make any payments on the loan.
It might not have anything to do with an autofill error - it was an error, but that’s the sort of error that existed even before computers.* I have always gotten mail addressed to people I don’t know at my address. For the most part, they happen as the result of one of the following errors
I live on 75 St and the person actually lives at my house number on 75 Avenue ( which is right around the corner, so same post office/zip code)
My house number is 75-12 and the addressee lives at 75-21 (down the block)
There are some other mistakes I’ve seen on my own records that probably account for some more of the misdirected mail - for example, I recently gained access to electronic records of a hospital that said I had an overdue ER bill. I never got the bill because they had an incorrect address on my records - something like 75 175 St , so a partial house number and an extra digit in the street number. If that address exists, the person who got the bill has no idea where I live.
* Now, it’s probably mostly due to mistyping but in the past, a lot was due to poor handwriting.
How would it matter if the applicant (stranger) does not give your name or your SSN? Can anyone do a credit check based on “Occupant of 75 XYZ street”? (I’m assuming - no).
This was an ongoing scam in Ontario quite a few years ago when they went to a computerized titles registry. People would find a free-and-clear property, apply for a mortgage with fake ID as the owner, then disappear with the money. It even got to a court case, where the court said the scammed bank was entitled to foreclose on the house, since the law did not allow for the possibility of fraud - the bank registered the mortgage in good faith, therefore it was valid. The law has been corrected. When I bought my house, I needed incontrovertible proof of my identity presented to my lawyers handling the transaction (passport was good).
but yes, depending on the jurisdiction, it could cost some decent sum to sort out this sort of fraud.
I’d add that, distressing as this is, don’t expect much from any law-enforcement agency. This kind of thing is so common that they’re basically not interested. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t report it, if you find something to report: having that record cold be vital if something weird comes out of it.