Mortgage Scam Letters: How to Spot a Fake "Mortgage Service Center" Notice in Connecticut

A few weeks after you close on a house, the mail changes. Some of it is real. A surprising amount of it is designed to look real.

Recently, a client who bought with us received two letters. One offered a home warranty from an "AFC home warranty division." She paid for it. The other was a "mortgage service center" notice saying she had missed a payment, and it named us. Neither came from AFC Mortgage Group.

Here's why this happens, and how to check any letter about your mortgage in under five minutes.

Why new homeowners get so much look-alike mail

When you buy a home in Connecticut, the deed and the mortgage are recorded in the town's land records. Those records are public. They show your name, the property address, the lender's name and the date.

Marketing companies collect that information and mail new owners within weeks. Some offers are legitimate products sold aggressively. Others are built to look like a bill from your lender so you pay without thinking.

The red flags

• A generic sender name. "Mortgage Service Center," "Homeowner Services Division" or "Loan Processing Department," with no company you recognize.
• Your lender's name used loosely. A real servicer identifies itself clearly. A look-alike may mention your lender's name in passing to borrow its credibility.
• Urgency. "Final notice," "respond within 48 hours" or "avoid cancellation" on a loan you just closed.
• A payment method you've never used. A new phone number, a QR code or a reply envelope to an address that isn't on your monthly statement.
• An optional product presented as required. Home warranties, mortgage protection insurance and record-copy services are never a condition of your mortgage.

How to check whether a mortgage letter is real

1. Find your servicer. It's named on your monthly statement and on your servicing notice. Your servicer may be different from the lender you worked with, and it can change after closing. When it changes, you get written notice.
2. Compare the details. Real letters carry your loan number, your servicer's name and contact information that matches your statement.
3. Don't pay from the letter. Log in to your servicer's website directly or call the number printed on your statement.
4. Ask your loan officer. If a letter names the company you closed with, they can tell you quickly whether it's theirs.

If you already paid

• Call your card issuer or bank and ask about disputing the charge.
• Cancel the product in writing if it's a real company, and keep a copy.
• Report deceptive mail to the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection and the Federal Trade Commission.

Home warranties are optional

A home warranty can be a reasonable product for some owners. It is never required by your mortgage, and it should never arrive as a bill you didn't sign up for. If you want one, compare plans on your own schedule.

The takeaway

After closing, the safest rule is simple: pay your mortgage only through the servicer named on your statement, and question anything that rushes you.

If you closed with AFC Mortgage Group and something arrives with our name on it, send it to your loan officer before you pay anything. Learn more at afcmortgagegroup.net.