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[ira01]

It is hard to imagine the product meeting where someone pitched the notion that a random screen-name generator would improve business.  He would have had to pitch the notion that thinking up a screen name was the impediment to a substantial number of borrowers.  In any group of listeners I can imagine, he would be laughed out of the room.  My only alternative is to imagine that such a meeting never happened.

As I said before, I think this was carefully crafted and clearly intended to further eliminate any PII on Prosper, and further handcuff lenders from doing due dilligence on borrowers.  I'm sure Prosper realized that a not-insubstantial number of borrowers use first-name-last-name or first-initial-last-name as their screen names, while an even greater number use the same screen name they use on other online endeavors (making deep googling possible).  Moreover, even when a screen name doesn't directly connect a borrower to their real-life identity, in a lot of cases it at least provides further evidence once a possible connection is otherwise made (it might reference someone's profession, or their alma mater, etc.). 

From Prosper's (misguided) perspective, anything that cuts down on this is very beneficial for Prosper:

1)  Some loans that wouldn't fund because lenders could find a bunch of dirt on the borrower, prove they are lying, etc., now get funded, which has two important benefits for Prosper -- it gets the origination fee, and it gets to count the loan in its rapidly dwindling origination statistics.

2)  In some cases Lenders can no longer establish that loans are the result of ID-theft, thereby allowing Prosper to more easily shirk its duty of repurchasing them via its so-called "100% identity-theft guarantee," saving Prosper cash as well as PR black eyes.

3)  In some cases lenders can no longer match up loans that go BK with the PACER reports, thereby preventing us from showing Prosper's incompetence in its handling of BK's.

Some of Prosper's biggest PR headaches have been where forum detectives matched borrowers to their real world identities -- Indictment-Man, Conviction-Man, Leporello's infamouos ID-theft case, etc.

[bamalucky]

Don't you know why they suggest a screen name?

You might choose one on your own that lets you be Googled

[Texaswatchdog]

This one guy has an AA credit rating, but said the following in his post. "I'm applying for this loan to pay off debt so I can improve my credit." How is this guy going to improve an AA credit rating? That is more than a red flag, that is a red banner the size of a building. It is fully funded. I bet this guy doesn't make more than one payment, if even that.
http://www.prosper.com/lend/listing.aspx?listingID=395660

[Pinebox]

Don't you know why they suggest a screen name?

You might choose one on your own that lets you be Googled

I fully agree with this. It is exactly what I would do if I wanted to keep the marks from googling the cash.

[Fred93]

Here's the full list of the "funny" loans, including the ones unix originally found, and several more similar ones I found.  All have closely patterned names (which we have since learned come from the stupid new prosper screen-name generator), stock photography, and one line loan purpose using a closely patterned sentence.

395421  I want to use this loan to pay off high interest debt and to start to save more.
395660  The purpose of this loan is to pay off monthly bills and to improve my credit.
394661  I'm applying for this loan to pay off debt so I can improve my credit.
394072  The purpose of this loan is to pay off monthly bills. That way I can protect my credit rating.
392821  The purpose of this loan is to consolidate debt. That way I can start to save more.
394732  This loan will be used to pay off debt and to start to save more.
385099  I want to use this loan to pay off monthly bills and to start to save more.
385589  This loan will be used to consolidate the remaining balance on my credit cards so I can start to save more.
398674  This loan will be used to… consolidate credit card bills and to protect my credit rating.
393318  I'm applying for this loan to consolidate monthly bills.
396307  This loan will be used to pay off an outstanding debt to finish our home improvments.
394134  I want to use this loan to consolidate monthly bills so I can protect my credit rating.

There are an amazing number of repeated phrases here, like "consolidate monthly bills", "protect my credit rating", "start to save more", "pay off monthly bills", etc.  At first I thought this was clear evidence of identity fraud.

However, now that we have learned about prosper's stupid name generator, how do we know they haven't instituted a "description generator" and "stock photography of male models for your picture"?  I know this sounds insane, but given the stuff they're doing lately, it isn't out of the question.  In fact it would be right in line with their behavior. 

Have any of you gone thru the listing generation process recently to observe the new "features"?  If so, please report.

If prosper hasn't implemented a description generator, then I stand by my position that the above loans are all fraudulent.

[ToySoldier]

 

Have any of you gone thru the listing generation process recently to observe the new "features"?  If so, please report.

If prosper hasn't implemented a description generator, then I stand by my position that the above loans are all fraudulent.

Mtnchick has:
http://www.prosper.com/lend/listing.aspx?listingID=392483

[Shenandoah]

+1.  This is un-freaking-believable (but unfortunately not for Prosper).  They have really taken their anti-PII crusade to a whole new level.  I wonder how long it will be until you have to use their made up screen name, rather than being able to choose your own?

My, how times have changed.

Personally, I wouldn't mind if Prosper assigned borrowers a username/number...

http://prosperreport.com/prosper/forums/archive/threads/2/4/7/24729.2.htm#post304715


I'm not picking on you, ira01, just commenting on how back then, it was viewed as an acceptable action (not desirable, but not horrible).  But so much else has been taken away in between, now it's just another link in a long chain, and it's an entirely different environment we're dealing with.

[Xenon481]

There are an amazing number of repeated phrases here, like "consolidate monthly bills", "protect my credit rating", "start to save more", "pay off monthly bills", etc.  At first I thought this was clear evidence of identity fraud.

However, now that we have learned about prosper's stupid name generator, how do we know they haven't instituted a "description generator" and "stock photography of male models for your picture"?  I know this sounds insane, but given the stuff they're doing lately, it isn't out of the question.  In fact it would be right in line with their behavior. 

Have any of you gone thru the listing generation process recently to observe the new "features"?  If so, please report.

If prosper hasn't implemented a description generator, then I stand by my position that the above loans are all fraudulent.

I just went through a listing creation (stopped right before the end) and here is what I saw:

- Pick listing reason (business, personal, consolidation, education, etc)
- Congrats you qualify for Express Listing. . . (I hadn't even put my max interest rate in, so how would it think I was going to hit PP's?)
- There is a tiny link that allowed me to Personalize my listing even though I qualified for Express.
- The default listing long description was the standard why do you want a loan and why are you a good candidate.
- I didn't see any one-liner generators.

[112233]

prosper's argument would probably be that they still give the borrower the option of choosing their own screen name. however, they set up barriers to this by defaulting the screenname to a random one, initially making it read-only, and then spooking the borrower into not changing it.

[112233]

If prosper hasn't implemented a description generator, then I stand by my position that the above loans are all fraudulent.

hold on. this is fraud, period. the only question is whether it was committed by the borrower or prosper.

it would be fraud on prosper's part if lenders are reading listings they thought were created by the borrower, but in fact were assembled by prosper. this includes the use the use of photography that has nothing to do with the borrower. even if the borrower chose the photos from a list provided by prosper, it's still fraud IMHO because prosper is encouraging and participating in the deception of lenders.

now that we know about this screen name generator, it's not much of leap to guess prosper has implemented other auto-create stuff features somewhere else.

I think we should report some of these listings. If they are canceled, then it was the borrower. If they are not canceled, then that could be an indication that prosper is involved.

[Xenon481]

There are an amazing number of repeated phrases here, like "consolidate monthly bills", "protect my credit rating", "start to save more", "pay off monthly bills", etc.  At first I thought this was clear evidence of identity fraud.

However, now that we have learned about prosper's stupid name generator, how do we know they haven't instituted a "description generator" and "stock photography of male models for your picture"?  I know this sounds insane, but given the stuff they're doing lately, it isn't out of the question.  In fact it would be right in line with their behavior. 

Have any of you gone thru the listing generation process recently to observe the new "features"?  If so, please report.

If prosper hasn't implemented a description generator, then I stand by my position that the above loans are all fraudulent.

I just went through a listing creation (stopped right before the end) and here is what I saw:

- Pick listing reason (business, personal, consolidation, education, etc)
- Congrats you qualify for Express Listing. . . (I hadn't even put my max interest rate in, so how would it think I was going to hit PP's?)
- There is a tiny link that allowed me to Personalize my listing even though I qualified for Express.
- The default listing long description was the standard why do you want a loan and why are you a good candidate.
- I didn't see any one-liner generators.

I should also add that the listing creation process did not provide any automatic image functionality, I would have had to upload my own if I wanted one.

[xraider]

If prosper hasn't implemented a description generator, then I stand by my position that the above loans are all fraudulent.

hold on. this is fraud, period. the only question is whether it was committed by the borrower or prosper.

it would be fraud on prosper's part if lenders are reading listings they thought were created by the borrower, but in fact were assembled by prosper. this includes the use the use of photography that has nothing to do with the borrower. even if the borrower chose the photos from a list provided by prosper, it's still fraud IMHO because prosper is encouraging and participating in the deception of lenders.

now that we know about this screen name generator, it's not much of leap to guess prosper has implemented other auto-create stuff features somewhere else.

I think we should report some of these listings. If they are canceled, then it was the borrower. If they are not canceled, then that could be an indication that prosper is involved.

I reported the first 4 listings in the original post yesterday morning.  Someone posted on the official forms that he reported all 6.  I think we have our answer.

[112233]

here is another thought.. and only a thought since I have no evidence:

It's hard to believe that prosper would waste time and resources to implement an auto-created listing description and photo just to prevent lenders from finding PII. I dont think there are enough borrowers being "discovered" to justify this change (expensive and time consuming) from prosper's point of view.

instead, I have a different theory:

prosper could be reaching out to institutional lenders who have borrowers and are looking for alternative capital sources. these lenders could be acting as a middle man between the borrower and prosper.

these lenders may not want to be bothered with all the p2p stuff so prosper may have created software that allows them to add a borrower and minimize the stuff like adding pictures and typing in a description. in my mind, it could be something very simple like adding name/address, SSN, financial information, and a reason why they want the loan from a drop down box. prosper would then auto-create a screen name, auto-create a listing description, and randomly select a picture from it's stock photo collection.

the auto-created screenname on the sign-up page could just be a simple matter of software reuse... "hey, we have this wonderful piece we created for our institutional lenders. why dont we implement it on the regular sign-up page as well"

this doesnt change the fact though that the bidding lenders would be deceived in this scenario. if prosper is in fact automatically creating these listings, then they should mark up the listing in no uncertain terms that it was automatically created by software by an instutional lender and does not represent the words or pictures of the borrower. they should use different colors and the whole 9 yards. Also, there should be a way to search for or filter out these listings.

As I said, this is just a thought. I have no evidence this has occured.

[DCS]

I reported the first 4 listings in the original post yesterday morning.  Someone posted on the official forms that he reported all 6.  I think we have our answer.

I reported all six listings from Unix as well.

I seriously doubt Prosper has implemented a listing-text-generator or photo-generator.  The latter would require a REALLY extensive collection of photos or else lenders would eventually notice duplicate photos among the listings.

If we see a lack of response from Prosper on this, it's more likely that Prosper simply no longer pays attention to reported listings. (based on personal experience)

Also, let's assume Prosper reacts appropriately to the reported listings, determines there is ID Fraud, and notifies the appropriate authorities.  I have no idea, but is it at all possible that the law enforcement working on the case would want Prosper to leave the listings up while they investigate the linked bank accounts so as not to tip off the suspect?

edited to correct spelling...

[Mark12547]

This one guy has an AA credit rating, but said the following in his post. "I'm applying for this loan to pay off debt so I can improve my credit." How is this guy going to improve an AA credit rating? That is more than a red flag, that is a red banner the size of a building. It is fully funded. I bet this guy doesn't make more than one payment, if even that.
http://www.prosper.com/lend/listing.aspx?listingID=395660

Remember, Prosper uses Experian's ScoreX PLUS when determining the credit score. There have been a number of listings where we have scratched our heads, wondering how someone could get such a high credit grade with such terrible extended credit data. (And we see only a subset of information on a credit report, that in summary format, and it is just from one credit reporting agency.)

Different scoring models weigh different factors differently. Just because ScoreX PLUS considers someone an excellent risk, one might be an intermediate risk by FICO. And just because Experian credit report might be clean, it doesn't follow that the other two credit reporting agencies are reporting just as pristine credit reports.

Bringing current a delinquent account or reducing the revolving credit utilization ratio could improve one's FICO credit score, which in some cases could make the difference between a good mortgage and a poor rate, considering that mortgage companies look at FICO scores based on information from all three credit reporting agencies (so one has three FICO scores) and, in the case of joint applications for mortgage, the negative information to be corrected might be on the other person's credit reports.

But if an AA is borrowing to improve one's own credit rating (but the one linked is just an A, not an AA), and the extended credit data looks pristine, it is likely either stuff summarized out of what we can see, or on another credit reporting agency's credit report.