This campaign involves suspicious activity connecting phone number 833-402-0148 with two companies in the financial services sector: First Merchants Corporation and My Mortgage, Inc. The phone number has been co-reported alongside both companies in multiple instances, with all relationships showing a 0.35 confidence level for being reported together. First Merchants Corporation, operating in the checking or savings account industry, has generated 144 CFPB complaints, while My Mortgage, Inc., a mortgage industry company, has accumulated 7 CFPB complaints. Despite the connected reporting patterns, the phone number itself shows 0 FTC complaints directly attributed to it.
Community reports reveal concerning patterns of potentially fraudulent communications impersonating legitimate financial institutions. One report with 1 upvote specifically questions "Possibly First Merchants Bank Fraud," while another describes receiving a letter from a company posing as the victim's mortgage lender attempting to pressure them into purchasing "mortgage protection." A third report details a notice claiming urgency and referencing county clerk records, Truist as a lender name, and demanding immediate phone contact. These reports suggest scammers are using the identities of legitimate financial institutions to create false urgency around mortgage and banking matters.
The campaign appears to target homeowners and banking customers through impersonation tactics, leveraging the trusted names of established financial institutions to create credibility for their fraudulent schemes. The mortgage protection angle and references to county records suggest scammers are accessing or fabricating property ownership information to make their communications appear legitimate and time-sensitive.
To protect yourself from these schemes, always verify any urgent financial communications by contacting your bank or mortgage company directly using official phone numbers from your statements or their official websites, never numbers provided in suspicious communications. If contacted by phone, hang up immediately and call back using verified contact information. Do not click on any links in emails or text messages claiming to be from financial institutions. Report these incidents to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov or to the FCC for phone-based scams. To check if a phone number or company has been reported as suspicious, search consumer protection databases and review community reports before engaging with any unsolicited financial communications.
This cluster represents a moderate threat level involving financial impersonation tactics targeting homeowners and bank customers. The volume of complaints against the associated companies and the pattern of reported relationships suggest an organized effort to exploit consumer trust in financial institutions. Consumers should remain vigilant about unsolicited mortgage protection offers and verify all financial communications through independent channels before taking any action.