Comments on: LendingTree Attempts to Censor Comments http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/lendingtree-attempts-to-censor-comments The Home for Lead Industry News & Opinion Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:42:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Cease & Desist 101: Think Long and Hard Before Hitting Send | BrokerScience Mortgage Marketing Blog http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/lendingtree-attempts-to-censor-comments/comment-page-1#comment-316379 Cease & Desist 101: Think Long and Hard Before Hitting Send | BrokerScience Mortgage Marketing Blog Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:59:18 +0000 http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/lendingtree-attempts-to-censor-comments#comment-316379 [...] is fresh on the heals of a recent discussion at LeadCritic.com regarding Lending Tree’s lame attempt via C & D letters to try to get bloggers to delete [...] [...] is fresh on the heals of a recent discussion at LeadCritic.com regarding Lending Tree’s lame attempt via C & D letters to try to get bloggers to delete [...]

]]> By: Cease & Desist 101: Think Long and Hard Before Hitting Send | BrokerScience.com http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/lendingtree-attempts-to-censor-comments/comment-page-1#comment-27579 Cease & Desist 101: Think Long and Hard Before Hitting Send | BrokerScience.com Wed, 30 Apr 2008 05:27:25 +0000 http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/lendingtree-attempts-to-censor-comments#comment-27579 [...] is fresh on the heals of a recent discussion at LeadCritic.com regarding Lending Tree’s lame attempt via C & D letters to try to get bloggers to delete [...] [...] is fresh on the heals of a recent discussion at LeadCritic.com regarding Lending Tree’s lame attempt via C & D letters to try to get bloggers to delete [...]

]]> By: Trace http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/lendingtree-attempts-to-censor-comments/comment-page-1#comment-27524 Trace Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:35:48 +0000 http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/lendingtree-attempts-to-censor-comments#comment-27524 They strike again, if only we could all be so lucky to receive meaningless C & D's as regularly as TechCrunch: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/29/oh-my-god/ They strike again, if only we could all be so lucky to receive meaningless C & D’s as regularly as TechCrunch:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/29/oh-my-god/

]]> By: Lead Critic http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/lendingtree-attempts-to-censor-comments/comment-page-1#comment-26745 Lead Critic Sat, 26 Apr 2008 16:42:02 +0000 http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/lendingtree-attempts-to-censor-comments#comment-26745 Bill, Agreed and I think you will see positive things come out of this in the long run. Bill,
Agreed and I think you will see positive things come out of this in the long run.

]]> By: Bill Swift http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/lendingtree-attempts-to-censor-comments/comment-page-1#comment-26685 Bill Swift Sat, 26 Apr 2008 12:10:56 +0000 http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/lendingtree-attempts-to-censor-comments#comment-26685 When I say quietly go away, what I meant was that it's in the best interest of all of us that this not get blown up in the mainstream media. If LendingTree is perceived as a unsecure process do you really think consumers won't have the same feeling about ZipSearch, LowerMyBills, etc? My point was we collectively should use this incident to look at our own security and as an industry prevent this activity from happening in the future. I can assure you that similar or worse things happen regulary in the short form space. Do you think an aggregator selling a lead to other aggregators or 10 lenders is really any better than what happened here? Most of the comments have been negative and looking to throw LT under the bus rather than productive. As far as this becoming a big media story, it's been all over the news here in Charlotte and all it's going to take is one person's identity being compromised as a result of this and I can guarantee it will go national. Wachovia just settled a lawsuit for $144 Million this week http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/business/26banks.html?ref=business for unfair telemarketing practices no telling what could come out of this. When I say quietly go away, what I meant was that it’s in the best interest of all of us that this not get blown up in the mainstream media. If LendingTree is perceived as a unsecure process do you really think consumers won’t have the same feeling about ZipSearch, LowerMyBills, etc?

My point was we collectively should use this incident to look at our own security and as an industry prevent this activity from happening in the future. I can assure you that similar or worse things happen regulary in the short form space. Do you think an aggregator selling a lead to other aggregators or 10 lenders is really any better than what happened here? Most of the comments have been negative and looking to throw LT under the bus rather than productive.

As far as this becoming a big media story, it’s been all over the news here in Charlotte and all it’s going to take is one person’s identity being compromised as a result of this and I can guarantee it will go national. Wachovia just settled a lawsuit for $144 Million this week http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/business/26banks.html?ref=business for unfair telemarketing practices no telling what could come out of this.

]]> By: Lead Critic http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/lendingtree-attempts-to-censor-comments/comment-page-1#comment-26592 Lead Critic Sat, 26 Apr 2008 03:56:14 +0000 http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/lendingtree-attempts-to-censor-comments#comment-26592 Bill, You bring up some very good points, however your request that this issue quietly go away I don't agree with. I also don't think it is bad for the industry either and in fact, quite the opposite. I would much rather this come out, be discussed until we are blue in the face and then set a new standard for security. Sweeping it under the rug for the sake of the industry is very short sited. You said it and I agree this should be a lesson to all of us. The sad thing is that consumers don't care until it happens to them and main stream media hasn't even grazed this story and probably won't. Bill,
You bring up some very good points, however your request that this issue quietly go away I don’t agree with. I also don’t think it is bad for the industry either and in fact, quite the opposite. I would much rather this come out, be discussed until we are blue in the face and then set a new standard for security. Sweeping it under the rug for the sake of the industry is very short sited. You said it and I agree this should be a lesson to all of us.

The sad thing is that consumers don’t care until it happens to them and main stream media hasn’t even grazed this story and probably won’t.

]]> By: Bill Swift http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/lendingtree-attempts-to-censor-comments/comment-page-1#comment-26563 Bill Swift Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:30:08 +0000 http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/lendingtree-attempts-to-censor-comments#comment-26563 I would personally like to see this go away silently. This type of bad press will ultimately cause consumers to have less confidence in the online request process which so many of us make our living from. As many of you know I spent time at LendingTree and I can tell you first hand that their data security was far and above tighter than every other lead-gen company I have come across. This was a matter of a few dishonest employees who gave out confidential passwords. I can not comment on LendingTree's current security but I know it is possible to deter this type of activity. LeadROI (the LMS company Root use to own) has IP validation, employees can only log into the system from admin approved IP addresses. While this doesn't totally prevent situations like what happened at LT it certainly would make it more difficult. Like it or not LendingTree is the most well known company in our space, bad press for them will ultimately mean bad press for us as an industry. So we should not be rejoicing in their current problems and pointing fingers. I think we should all use this situation (both buyers and sellers) as a lesson to tighten our own security and not dwell on LTs current situation. Sellers Are you selling leads to other aggregators? If so what security measures do you have in place to be assured the consumer data you collected isn't winding up in the wrong hands? If you are using affiliates what are you doing to prevent affiliate fraud? Are you still e-mailing leads to hotmail or yahoo e-mail accounts for LOs? How are you preventing them from redistributing them outside of the company? Are you making sure your buyers are licensed mortgage brokers/lenders and not a thief ordering leads from his bedroom to get consumer data? Are you sure your buyers don't have rogue LOs reselling your leads? Buyers What measures do you have in place to prevent your employees from stealing data? If you buy SS# leads are you giving your LOs access to them? If so have you looked into potential liabilities if one of them uses that information for criminal purposes? Let’s turn this around into a more productive conversation rather than a witch humt. Look forward to your comments. I would personally like to see this go away silently. This type of bad press will ultimately cause consumers to have less confidence in the online request process which so many of us make our living from.

As many of you know I spent time at LendingTree and I can tell you first hand that their data security was far and above tighter than every other lead-gen company I have come across. This was a matter of a few dishonest employees who gave out confidential passwords. I can not comment on LendingTree’s current security but I know it is possible to deter this type of activity. LeadROI (the LMS company Root use to own) has IP validation, employees can only log into the system from admin approved IP addresses. While this doesn’t totally prevent situations like what happened at LT it certainly would make it more difficult.

Like it or not LendingTree is the most well known company in our space, bad press for them will ultimately mean bad press for us as an industry. So we should not be rejoicing in their current problems and pointing fingers.

I think we should all use this situation (both buyers and sellers) as a lesson to tighten our own security and not dwell on LTs current situation.

Sellers

Are you selling leads to other aggregators? If so what security measures do you have in place to be assured the consumer data you collected isn’t winding up in the wrong hands?

If you are using affiliates what are you doing to prevent affiliate fraud?

Are you still e-mailing leads to hotmail or yahoo e-mail accounts for LOs? How are you preventing them from redistributing them outside of the company?

Are you making sure your buyers are licensed mortgage brokers/lenders and not a thief ordering leads from his bedroom to get consumer data?

Are you sure your buyers don’t have rogue LOs reselling your leads?

Buyers

What measures do you have in place to prevent your employees from stealing data?

If you buy SS# leads are you giving your LOs access to them? If so have you looked into potential liabilities if one of them uses that information for criminal purposes?

Let’s turn this around into a more productive conversation rather than a witch humt.

Look forward to your comments.

]]> By: George Favvas http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/lendingtree-attempts-to-censor-comments/comment-page-1#comment-26506 George Favvas Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:12:26 +0000 http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/lendingtree-attempts-to-censor-comments#comment-26506 If the security in place at LendingTree is that bad that it rests on the login URL being kept secret, their problems are even bigger than what we've been reading in the press these past few days. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_through_obscurity But that's not the issue here. They're asking for the entire comment to be removed, not just the URL, which means they probably don't want people learning about the business practices described in the comment. Also ask yourself this: If the allegations made regarding LendingTree's business practices weren't true, wouldn't they just come out and deny them? If the security in place at LendingTree is that bad that it rests on the login URL being kept secret, their problems are even bigger than what we’ve been reading in the press these past few days.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_through_obscurity

But that’s not the issue here. They’re asking for the entire comment to be removed, not just the URL, which means they probably don’t want people learning about the business practices described in the comment.

Also ask yourself this: If the allegations made regarding LendingTree’s business practices weren’t true, wouldn’t they just come out and deny them?

]]> By: warren http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/lendingtree-attempts-to-censor-comments/comment-page-1#comment-26500 warren Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:01:26 +0000 http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/lendingtree-attempts-to-censor-comments#comment-26500 That said, I agree with curly, the poster is the priamry person lendingtree should go after That said, I agree with curly, the poster is the priamry person lendingtree should go after

]]> By: LendingTree Security Breach | How Not to Handle an Online Reputation Crisis | Lead Marketwatch http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/lendingtree-attempts-to-censor-comments/comment-page-1#comment-26452 LendingTree Security Breach | How Not to Handle an Online Reputation Crisis | Lead Marketwatch Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:52:42 +0000 http://blog.leadcritic.com/featured/lendingtree-attempts-to-censor-comments#comment-26452 [...] You would think that the precedent of, “how lawyers sending letters to bloggers without grounds, spins crisis out of control,” would be mainline reading in law schools and professional journals these days. But, unfortunately for LendingTree they are retracing notoriously disastrous ground. [...] [...] You would think that the precedent of, “how lawyers sending letters to bloggers without grounds, spins crisis out of control,” would be mainline reading in law schools and professional journals these days. But, unfortunately for LendingTree they are retracing notoriously disastrous ground. [...]

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