Contacting the lender for pay off amount

[Daniel Halsted]

How do you go about contacting the lender to find out how much someone owes on there property that is already in pre-foreclosure?  Are there public / subscription web sites for this or can you just call the lender direct?  I would imagine they would not  talk directly with someone outside of the mortgage but by pre-foreclosure there must have been a trustee assigned with a law firm or am I wrong?