Customers Frustrated by Lending Tree Breach

LENDING TREE BREACH

Many frustrated consumers received the April 21, 2008 letter from Lending Tree advising them that their personal data had been illegally sold by employees and ex-employees. Many consumers have had to spend countless hours monitoring their credit reports and contacting credit bureaus regarding possible fraudulent activity.

Although Lending Tree claims it undertakes efforts to protect its customer’s privacy, they allege in their own complaint that both during and after their employment several Lending Tree employees used their administrative access to illegally distribute the user names and passwords of the customers to unauthorized persons. Those unauthorized persons could then log onto Lending Tree’s data base and access consumers’ private information. This illegal access is alleged to have gone on for well over a year without detection. Lending Tree alleges that the stolen data and passwords to Lending Tree’s customer database was then sold again by the unauthorized entities to other unauthorized entities.

As one frustrated consumer said, “If Lending Tree were even remotely interested in showing some kind of concern in regards to some remedy in this situation as opposed to placing the responsibility on the consumers to undue what they caused, then I would not be as angered as I am right now.”

If you or a loved one have been the victim of identity theft, you owe it to yourself to speak with an attorney and learn about your legal rights.