Loan application makes you a 'trigger lead'
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But Pratt argues that the leads are helpful for lenders, brokers and consumers, though consumer, credit and home lending groups debate who benefits the most from this type of contact: the competitor or the consumer?

"The competition benefits the consumer," Pratt says. "I could be doing business with a subprime mortgage lender and discover that I could be with a prime lender. As a consumer, that's hundreds of dollars in your pocket."

The Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, also says consumers can benefit from these calls. According to the agency's consumer alert, the offers present other products that make it easier to comparison shop.

Pratt adds the trigger lead products allow local brokers to compete with national brokers, which means more offers for consumers.

However, some of those local lenders and brokers aren't too happy having their competitors soliciting their customers.

"It's very unfair to people like me, people that are in the industry that are trying to broker loans, and then you got some back stabber who has the ability to steal our leads," says Gene Peplinski, a former loan officer in Flint, Mich.

Peplinski says in the fall of 2005 one of his borrowers had just applied for a loan when the borrower received an unsolicited phone call from a mortgage lender.

"He asked if I had given his name and number to this new company. I said, 'No I don't know anything about it,'" says Peplinski. He argues that the mortgage company he worked for paid the expenses of generating a lead of a potential home buyer.

Pratt says the negative reaction is enhanced by the slow real estate market.

"Some brokers are more sensitive to another competitor taking a person away," says Pratt.

Some consumers and regulators complain that the trigger leads inspire deception from lenders anxious to make a deal. Complaints include consumers upset that they were led to believe the caller was associated with the company they had just applied with or they were unhappy that information provided to the original company was given to another source.

William Lund, director of the Maine Office of Consumer Credit Regulation, says he believes the Fair Credit Reporting Act is being violated because excessive information is being provided on trigger leads and the credit offers are not firm. Instead, he says, they are "fishing expeditions" providing no benefit to the consumer.

Lund also says the National Do Not Call Registry and the pre-screening opt-out list are being ignored.

Monique Wormwood of Monterville, W.Va., applied for a mortgage refinance in 2005 with the mortgage company where she was employed when she lived in Naples, Maine. She quickly received an unexpected phone call.

"I answered the phone and the gentleman said, 'Hi, Mrs. Wormwood, I am following up on your loan application.' He had the attitude that he spoke to me before. I told him his conversation was a lie because I worked for their competitor," says Wormwood.