We have been notified by several residential loan applicants that within a couple of days of us pulling the credit bureua a mortgage broker implying that they work for us has contacted them. The mortgage broker tries to persuade them to authorize the order of an appraisal and proceed with processing the loan. We are a relatively small bank who does not work with mortgage brokers and we don't do direct marketing so I am at a loss as to how this mortgage broker is even capable of finding out that we have pulled a credit bureau on someone. I'm aware that our customers are being contacted, typically by mail, after a mortgage has been filed, but not from a credit bureau being pulled. Is this legal? How do these companies get this information?