Mount Diablo Lending Fined After Owner Posts Borrowers' Personal Info In Response To Bad Yelp Re
The Federal Trade Commission has fined Ramon Walker, owner of Mount Diablo Lending, after he posted borrowers' information in comments on Yelp, while responding to a bad review.
"According to the FTC, Mount Diablo Lending and Walker allegedly posted borrowers’ credit histories, debt-to-income ratios, taxes, health, sources of income, family relationships, and other personal information in response to negative Yelp reviews. Some of the responses even revealed reviewers’ first and last names," according to HousingWire.
Not only did Walker list a number of late payments, he also wrote a longer response that exposed information regarding a loan that included a family member on the title.
“His mother-in-law was on title but not on the new loan. The new loan was only going to be in his and his wife’s name. This was a cash out loan, he was supposedly using the funds to pay off his kids Med School bills. The notary that sat down to sign was concerned the mother-in-law who was signing her rights off of the property had dementia," wrote Walker in his response.
"This was never mentioned to us throughout the whole process.…The funny thing is he admitted to me in one of our final conversations that his mother-in-law actually did have a ‘slight’ case of dementia. OK SO WHAT THE NOTARY SAID IS TRUE!!!! The title company did try to work with him by saying if he could get a letter from a doctor stating his motherin-law was aware of what she was signing we could proceed. He didn’t want to go that route, evidently she doesn’t have the capacity to understand she is signing away her rights to the property…. I know you feel entitled to the funds from your mothers house as you clearly stated to me but unfortunately that is not the way the law works and there is nothing my company can do about it."
Walker was fined by the FTC as it stated that his actions were in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the FTC Act and Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. As a result, Walker and Mount Diablo have agreed to pay $120,000 as a settlement for the allegations.
To learn more about Mount Diablo Lending and the settlement, click on the image above.
