The CFPB started allowing unvetted customer complaints

Recently the CFPB added a "submit a complaint" button to their website. This allows consumers to anonymously log a complaint against a lender on their public forum.  Other consumers can then look up the complaint history for a lender they're considering working with.  The way they explain is that it's for the consumers benefit to know what companies or lenders have received a number of complaints.  Here's the problem, there is nothing in place to ensure that the complaints are legitimate.  So what's to stop me (other than the fact that I'm not a complete jerk) from filing a fake complaint against my competitors?   What's to stop John Doe from filing a complaint against someone that he may have a separate issue with that he happens to know is a lender even though he's never dealt with the lender on that level?  As it stands the answer is nothing.  At least on Yelp a frivilous negative review (and yes they happen) can be offset by good reviews, the CFPB site offers only complaint submissions.  Chances are the majority of the complaints will be due to a consumer not understanding the process, which to me is the lender's job to communicate.  Often times delays in the mortgage process are due to mistakes by the lender, I get it, but often times there are things outside of our control that cause issues within the loan process.  I don't know how many times in my processing time I heard complaints about "your appraiser" as if the customer believes that we hire appraisers to low ball values.  By the way, we use AMCs and are not allowed to have any contact with appraisers whatsoever. Of course as I've stated before the CFPB is funded solely by fines levied so it behooves them to field and investigate as many complaints as possible.  I guess in their view the frivilous complaints they receive will be worth it if they can just find one legitimate one.  Unfortunately, a consumer that is savvy enough to check their complaint database may be put off from a good lender due to a frivilous complaint.