Microsoft holds the majority stake in the new company, called HomeAdvisorTechnologies Inc. Minority investors include secondary-mortgage giantFreddie Mac, as well as Chase Manhattan Corp., Bank of America, GMACResidential Funding Corp. and Norwest Mortgage Inc., the largest originatorof mortgages in the country. Microsoft officials said other partners wouldbe announced soon.

``This is probably the single most significant announcement in the mortgageindustry in the last 10 years,'' said Jaime Punishill, senior analyst ofonline financial services at Forrester Research. ``There are some very keypartners here who have put lots of cash on the line to completely change theway mortgages are done.''

Online mortgages currently account for about 2 per cent of all mortgages.But analysts predict that the number could rise to about 14 per cent by theyear, 2003.

What separates the new loan platform from existing online mortgage sites isthat consumers and real estate professionals will be able to lock in bindingloan rates online in a matter of minutes, Microsoft officials say. The newloan platform will debut on HomeAdvisor.com, Microsoft's real estate Website, sometime in April.

``You put in your name, your social security number and answer a fewquestions, click `submit', and you will get back real quotes customised toyou in a matter of minutes,'' said Ian Morris, products unit manager atHomeAdvisor.com. ``We run it through the lender's underwriting system andyou can lock that rate in online.'' ``On most loan sites, you can get aquote, but whether it's a quote that you eventually end up with is anothermatter,'' said Jonathan Gaw, e-commerce analyst at IDC, a technology marketresearch firm in Southern California.

``Most of those sites use teaser rates that are non-binding. You still haveto go through the paperwork process before they actually approve a rate.''The new company will be able to make snap loan decisions because the lendercan almost immediately find out whether Freddie Mac, which buys mortgagesfrom banks, will purchase the loan. The company will tie into Freddie Mac'svast database, which includes information on property and home buyerscollected over decades.

Because many of the steps involved in getting a mortgage will be automated,thus saving the lenders money, Microsoft officials said the average homebuyer would save more than $2,000 over the course of a loan because lenderswould presumably charge lower rates and reduce closing costs because of thesavings.

$60 million sought as damages
Geico and three other major automobile insurers have filed a wide-ranginglawsuit against a group of doctors, accusing them of selling the use oftheir medical licences to scam artists who used them to set up more than 40fraudulent New York companies that billed the carriers for millions ofdollars in false claims, according to a report published in Washington Post.The suit, the culmination of a four-year investigation by the fourcompanies, seeks about $60 million in damages. Officials of the insurerssaid the suit is important, not only to their companies, but also to themotoring public.

Fraud is a large and growing problem for insurers, and its costs are passedon to customers in the form of higher premiums.

Steven Englert, Allstate's manager of special investigations, said studiesput the cost of fraud at $20 billion annually -- adding $170 to $200 perhousehold to the cost of premiums.

The insurers said that they hope the case will send a message about theseriousness of insurance fraud and that state officials will pursue criminalcharges against the defendants in their case.

In addition to 14 doctors, the 270-page complaint names 47 medicalprofessional corporations (PCs), 15 management companies, 26 chiropractors,five non-doctors and one former doctor.

The insurers -- Progressive Corp., Allstate Corp. and New York CentralMutual Fire Insurance Co., along with Chevy Chase-based Geico Corp.-chargedin the suit that the fraud worked this way: A doctor would agree to sell theuse of his name and credentials for a fee of $4,000-5,000 a year to someoneseeking to set up a medical PC. Medical PCs in New York must be owned by aphysician. A complex series of stock transfers would follow, purportedlyshielding the doctor from responsibility.

The PC would then bill insurers for treatment of auto-accident victims. Theywould, among other things, bill treatment by chiropractors, or even laypeople, as physician services entitled to much higher rates; bill forservices never provided; bill for unnecessary services; and double-bill orinflate charges.

``The whole thrust of this operation was a billing machine,'' said VinceCoyne, manager of corporate special investigations at Progressive.

The companies said the investigation began with a pattern of suspiciousbilling that turned up four years ago. Investigators said they were shockedby the abuse they discovered. For example, Coyne said, ``A person went infor one treatment and we got billed for 36 treatments.'' In other cases, hesaid, patients with, say, an injured knee, would be sent for a magneticresonance imaging examination, and MRIs would be done on their brain,shoulder, cervix and both knees.

Mobile phones for Ford
Ford and Sprint PCS plan to offer mobile phones with Internet access in mostFord vehicles, beginning with select 2001 Lincoln models due on the marketin September, writes Associated Press. Ford has said that the deal providesthe first factory installed mobile phone that can be removed from a vehicleand used as a regular wireless phone.

Sprint's wireless network will provide service for the new Ford Rescusystem, a safety and concierge service similar to General Motors Corp.'sOnStar. No prices for the services were disclosed.

Ford and Sprint officials said the set-up would give users limited Webaccess and full digital calling service, both of which can bevoice-activated. Ford said e-mail access would be added in the near future.Brian Kelley, vice president of e-business for Ford, said the service wouldeventually spread to many other Ford vehicles. GM, whose OnStar service hasmore than 100,000 subscribers, has also said it will offer voice-activatedInternet access in some luxury vehicles this year.

Both automakers believe selling such services as Internet access orsatellite radio broadcasts could become lucrative new sources of revenuewithin a few years.