You Want What? Really?

I can fib. Especially online. I guess I'm pretty typical that way.

A pop-up ad offered to tell my how I could refinance my home at a lower interest rate before rates went up. Now, nevermind that I have no mortgage. I was bit by the curiosity bug for several minutes, and thought I'd see what they had to say. Just how low were rates?

The wanted info. For a bit it seemed reasonable. How much did I want to refinance? I picked $45G. Add any cash? Let's say $20G.  Once they got a bit more personal, I got less informative. Oh, and might I note they never did ask what my current rates were.

Name? Jane Doe seemed a bit obvious, so I modified it a bit: Janet Doark. Address and zip code? I made up something plausible in Forest Lake. Phone number? Another fake, though possible, and while the program balked at this at first, it accepted it the second time I submitted it. Email? My fake name at Gmail. Credit score? While I was debating how to answer that the screen rolled over to the next question. They were quite willing to figure it for me. What's my social security number?

Now, that got my dander up. Who needs that to tell me what kind of interest rates were available? Still not quite willing to quit playing, I invented a number, based on knowing my dad's really old number, assuming such an old number likely belonged to somebody already either dead or so old that a mortgage would be unlikely.

And what did I get for all this? A promise that someone would be in touch with an offer. Yeah, riiiiiiight. Uh huh. Sure.

Good luck with that. Oh, and my apologies to anybody at the other end of that phone number I invented. My guess is, however, anybody legitimate enough to actually check on that name and SS number will find out it's bogus and won't bother with a follow-up call.