Flooded by Spam After Searching for a Lender to Refinance?

Refinancing your home is stressful enough without the surprise avalanche of spam that might follow. "Morgan" from Yuma, Arizona, shared her experience, which serves as a cautionary tale for anyone considering a lender switch.

"We had to refinance our house and tried through XYZ. We now get a lot of spam that I have to continually block. I know it is them because we’ve used Rocket Mortgage for years and never had an issue, and XYZ was the only new organization we had been communicating with using that email. How do you prevent that?"

First, let's address the good news: there are ways to combat the spam deluge and prevent it from clogging up your inbox or phone in the future. The steps are simple but effective, starting with the golden rule: do not reply to spam messages or click on any suspicious links.

To tackle spam texts, you can adjust settings on your phone to direct messages from unknown senders into a dedicated "Unknown Senders" folder where they won't even ping you. This useful feature keeps the riff-raff out of sight and out of mind. And if you're an Android user, settings might vary based on your device's manufacturer, so make sure to customize accordingly.

Unfortunately, spam texts aren’t the only nuisance. Robocalls are another headache that often follows searches for lenders. Scammers love to mimic your local area code or part of your phone number to trick you into picking up. Most major carriers now mark such calls as "Spam Risk," but your best bet is not answering unfamiliar numbers altogether. If you accidentally pick up, don’t interact—just hang up and block the number. Both iPhones and Androids have easy-to-use functions for blocking callers.

Looking for solutions on a larger scale? Major carriers like Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile offer free tools like AT&T Call Protect, Sprint/T-Mobile Scam Shield, and Verizon Call Filter to block robocalls. It's worth reaching out to your provider to explore these options.

For those who want to go the extra mile, consider apps designed specifically to detect and stop spam calls before they even ring. This proactive approach might just save your sanity.

Now, here’s the harsh reality: your phone number is probably floating around on lists sold by data brokers to numerous search websites. Removing your number from these lists can significantly cut down on spam. Data removal services can automate this process, continually scrubbing your personal info from hundreds of sites. Although no service can guarantee complete removal, these tools are a great option for long-term privacy protection.

Spam may be annoying, but it’s not unbeatable. By blocking numbers, using spam-blocking services, enabling built-in filters, and considering data removal services, you can make a serious dent in the problem and reclaim your peace of mind.

What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to spam calls and texts? Share your thoughts at Cyberguy.com/Contact. For more tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to the free CyberGuy Report Newsletter at Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.