According to Gary Nitzkin, “[t]he credit reporting industry is operating in the stone age.” By which he means the credit reporting agencies seem incapable of dealing with credit information that comes from identity theft. Gary filed two lawsuits because even though the identity thief confessed, he could not get his clients’ credit reports fixed.
Why not? Because credit reporting agencies like TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax reduce all disputes to three pieces of information: the name, address, and social security number of the person making the dispute. If the CRA and the company who provided the negative information both have the same information, the credit report stays as-is.
Notice the lack of any investigation into whether the negative information itself was actually accurate? Even better: “Neither of the CRAs allow their investigators to use the internet, the telephone or a fax machine when conducting an investigation into a consumer dispute.”
Wait, what? They actually prevent their employees and furnishers from doing the required investigation. Facepalm, indeed.
OMG….The CRA’s are sooooo F’ed Up when it comes to ID theft!!!! | Michigan Collection Law Blog
(photo: Wikimedia Commons)
If you are in Minnesota, contact The Glover Law Firm, LLC, for a free case evaluation. In any other state, you can find a consumer rights lawyer using the National Association of Consumer Advocates lawyer database.
