Possible Breach at Mortgage Company

Anonymous · ‎08-21-2015

Argh!! I got home last night and saw that my husband and I both received letters from one of the mortgage companies we had previously applied at. Their letter was to inform us that a company laptop was stolen nearly a month ago and it's likely to have contained sensitive information such as tax records, employment records, bank information and credit reports. I already have credit monitoring set up for both of us so I know nothing has happened yet, but I'm worried that something is going to pop up at the last second that's going to derail this whole thing! Obviously I can't put a freeze on our reports either. Has anyone been through a possible breach when working through the mortgage process? We're about a month out from closing so I'm already stressing about every little thing and now this just had to poke its head in the room. Anyone have any advice/thoughts on what we can do at this point or is it just a wait and see game? When I told my family that I'm getting this house or I'll die trying, it wasn't supposed to be taken so literally!

Anonymous · ‎08-21-2015

My purse was stolen 2 weeks ago and it has sensitive mortgage paperwork in it including my SS number. Yep so the thief had all my banking info plus my drivers license and SS number :/. I immediately called all the credit cards and bank. I filed a police report and I also called the credit bureaus and put a 90 day fraud alert on my acct. all that does is flag anyone pulling your report that they need to contact you personally via phone prior to extending credit. I hadn't been pre approved yet so I let my LO know before he pulled credit and it was fine. If you have already been pre approved there isn't any risk for putting that on there. If you haven't yet, the alert could cause an approval on an automated underwrite to refer because a human has to contact you. I also have monitoring and so far so good. The idiot probably searched for cash (which I didn't have) and threw my purse in a dumpster but you never know! The work computer probably and likely was password protected, was stolen for the value of the laptop and not the info on it so you are probably safe. You will get notified immediately if a hard inquiry hits your report since you monitor. So if that doesn't happen you are "probably" in the clear.

Revelate · ‎08-21-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
Argh!! I got home last night and saw that my husband and I both received letters from one of the mortgage companies we had previously applied at. Their letter was to inform us that a company laptop was stolen nearly a month ago and it's likely to have contained sensitive information such as tax records, employment records, bank information and credit reports. I already have credit monitoring set up for both of us so I know nothing has happened yet, but I'm worried that something is going to pop up at the last second that's going to derail this whole thing! Obviously I can't put a freeze on our reports either. Has anyone been through a possible breach when working through the mortgage process? We're about a month out from closing so I'm already stressing about every little thing and now this just had to poke its head in the room. Anyone have any advice/thoughts on what we can do at this point or is it just a wait and see game? When I told my family that I'm getting this house or I'll die trying, it wasn't supposed to be taken so literally!

bmhill gives some good advice, to add:

Given the nature of the issue, unless it was someone who worked directly on your record (LO, LP, UW maybe in the last two case's depending on their technology) there's nothing to worry about on this one... really shouldn't have been stored there anyway given some of the modern compliance standards but I know not everyone is where they should be on those.

Don't borrow trouble; just get through the mortgage and if something comes up handle it. If you're really worried can share that letter with your LO and he'll likely tell you the same thing.