Home Loan Scam Tactics You Should Know About
February 25, 2024
Major lenders are warning home loan applicants about scams. These warnings are issued frequently. What makes the current round of warnings different and more urgent is the level of sophistication these swindles have reached recently.
The latest evolution of home loan scams is built to fool even security-minded home loan applicants. Fortunately, there are warning signs you can watch out for and steps you can take together with your participating FHA loan officer to protect you and your investment.
Coordinate Security with Your FHA Loan Officer
As early in the process as is appropriate, ask your loan officer about the lender’s cash close procedures, password change guidelines, and what the lender’s rules are for asking for your account number, password, or answers to your security questions.
Establish the official direct phone number to call if you need to verify any updated instructions or procedures that happen along the way. Never simply go along with what you are told. Ask questions by calling the central number of the bank or the number you and the lender agreed to.
Text, Email, and Caller ID Cannot Be Trusted
Lenders are issuing warnings to loan applicants that read something like this:
“Scammers can disguise email addresses, phone numbers and website URLs. Spoofing can be hard to recognize, as criminals may change just a single letter, number or symbol so things look valid at a quick glance.”
When you are contacted and asked to change something, don’t agree to it right away. Hang up, end the conversation, and call the lender directly at the agreed-upon phone number.
Plenty of illegal technology available cheaply online can make your caller ID look like you are getting a call from a number you know. The same is true of email and text messages.
What’s Spoofing?
Faking a phone number or email address is known as spoofing.
The official site of one bank warns, “If someone is asking you for information, hover the cursor over the display name. If an email is from a legitimate business, it should come from an email address associated with the company's official domain name.”
Our advice above, to ask the lender for a number to call just in case? This is a scenario where you will need that number.
FHA Loan Scam Tactics
RELATED VIDEOS:
Learn How to Meet FHA Requirements
Understanding APR
Your Proof of Ownership Is the Property Title
The latest evolution of home loan scams is built to fool even security-minded home loan applicants. Fortunately, there are warning signs you can watch out for and steps you can take together with your participating FHA loan officer to protect you and your investment.
Coordinate Security with Your FHA Loan Officer
As early in the process as is appropriate, ask your loan officer about the lender’s cash close procedures, password change guidelines, and what the lender’s rules are for asking for your account number, password, or answers to your security questions.
Establish the official direct phone number to call if you need to verify any updated instructions or procedures that happen along the way. Never simply go along with what you are told. Ask questions by calling the central number of the bank or the number you and the lender agreed to.
Text, Email, and Caller ID Cannot Be Trusted
Lenders are issuing warnings to loan applicants that read something like this:
“Scammers can disguise email addresses, phone numbers and website URLs. Spoofing can be hard to recognize, as criminals may change just a single letter, number or symbol so things look valid at a quick glance.”
When you are contacted and asked to change something, don’t agree to it right away. Hang up, end the conversation, and call the lender directly at the agreed-upon phone number.
Plenty of illegal technology available cheaply online can make your caller ID look like you are getting a call from a number you know. The same is true of email and text messages.
What’s Spoofing?
Faking a phone number or email address is known as spoofing.
The official site of one bank warns, “If someone is asking you for information, hover the cursor over the display name. If an email is from a legitimate business, it should come from an email address associated with the company's official domain name.”
Our advice above, to ask the lender for a number to call just in case? This is a scenario where you will need that number.
FHA Loan Scam Tactics
- High-pressure tactics are one of the hallmarks of a scam. The urgency is meant to make you panic, stop thinking critically, and make emotional decisions instead of rational ones.
- Do not give your data to anyone who calls you, as opposed to you calling them.
- Ignore all links in a suspicious email.
- Do NOT open or click on attachments, and do not call a number provided to you in the communication.
- Call the loan officer, speak with her directly, and do not obey third parties trying to tell you what to do in a communication you didn’t initiate.
RELATED VIDEOS:
Learn How to Meet FHA Requirements
Understanding APR
Your Proof of Ownership Is the Property Title
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