WASHINGTON—The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said it has taken separate actions against a company and an individual that resold sensitive personal data to lenders and debt collectors, allegedly exposing millions of consumers to harassment and deceit.
In a complaint filed in federal court, the CFPB alleged that T3Leads bought and sold personal information from payday and installment loan applications without properly vetting buyers and sellers. It also alleges that T3Leads’ owners unlawfully aided the company’s violations. In addition to monetary relief, the CFPB seeks to require T3Leads to clean up its business practices. In a separate matter, the CFPB took action against Eric V. Sancho, who operated a company called Lead Publisher that sold leads to fraudulent debt collectors without regard for how they would use the data. The CFPB ordered Sancho to “disgorge $21,151 he made illegally” and banned him from the financial products and consumer leads industries.
“These operators steered consumers toward bad deals and provided no protection from shady characters and unscrupulous lenders,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “This is a reminder to the middlemen who traffic in personal information: if you ignore warning signs that those buying this data are violating the law, you risk the consequences for the harm you are doing to people.”
T3Leads, a lead aggregator, is based in Burbank, Calif., and owned by Grigor and Marina Demirchyan. Lead aggregators buy consumer information – called leads – from lead generators, websites that market payday and installment loans. Lead Publisher, owned and operated by Eric V. Sancho and based in Phoenix, Ariz., also bought and sold leads, which contain personal information such as consumers’ names, telephone numbers, home and e-mail addresses, references, and employer information.