Can a creditor really do a hard inquiry when I report ID theft?

[Anonymous]

I recently reported ID theft on four derogatory accounts, and one utility company has been a huge pain to work with. They demanded tons of records, which I provided and which demonstrate very conclusively that I was renting and paying for utilities on an apartment in an entirely different state during the period that someone fraudulenty opened an account under my name on the other side of the country.

Rather than remove the fraudulent derogatories, the utility co has put a hard inquiry on my account:

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Installment Loan Inquiry

SOUTHERN CT GAS obtained a copy of your EXPERIAN Credit Report.

A lender has requested a copy of your Credit Report for an installment loan. Every time you apply for credit, a 'hard inquiry' is placed on your Credit Report and it may stay on your report for 25 months.

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I have NOT applied for an installment loan! This is completely false. I have not offered at any point to pay the balance on these accounts because they were opened FRAUDULENTLY. Can they really do this?

[RobertEG]

A creditor with which you have an existing account has permissible purpose to pull your credit report at any time for the purpose of reveiwing your credit performance.

Asserting that an account is not yours only becomes a fact that precludes account review inquiries once proven.

Howver, in the posted scenario, if they submitted the stated permissible purpose as reviewing a consumer-initiated request for new or extended credit and you intitiated no such request, that is NOT a proper permissible purpose.

The key, until identity theft if proven, is whether their stated permissible purpose is correct.

When you "reported ID theft," block from your credit report requires that you must send a copy of a police report to the CRA.

See the identity theft process outlined in FCRA 605B.

Did you send a police report to the CRA?

[sarge12]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I recently reported ID theft on four derogatory accounts, and one utility company has been a huge pain to work with. They demanded tons of records, which I provided and which demonstrate very conclusively that I was renting and paying for utilities on an apartment in an entirely different state during the period that someone fraudulenty opened an account under my name on the other side of the country.

Rather than remove the fraudulent derogatories, the utility co has put a hard inquiry on my account:

---

Installment Loan Inquiry

SOUTHERN CT GAS obtained a copy of your EXPERIAN Credit Report.

A lender has requested a copy of your Credit Report for an installment loan. Every time you apply for credit, a 'hard inquiry' is placed on your Credit Report and it may stay on your report for 25 months.

---

I have NOT applied for an installment loan! This is completely false. I have not offered at any point to pay the balance on these accounts because they were opened FRAUDULENTLY. Can they really do this?

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Are you sure that the person that stole your ID did not make a fraudulant credit app with them for an installment loan? You probably need to freeze your credit reports along with a fraud alert. Dispute the inquiry with Experian and Southern CT Gas. You should consider a good credit monitoring service in the future...Identity theft is a problem that is only getting worse. Some day I think free credit monitoring will be provided to all by the credit issuers, as their fraud losses increase, it will soon be in their best interest to do so.

[Anonymous]

I definitely did not request new or extended credit, or indeed anything at all except the removal of fraudulent accounts. At no point did I ever have a legitimate account with this company.

I sent all 3 CRAs an FTC identity theft report -- the FTC's FAQ suggested that the police report was optional. However, the utility company did request a police report, so I filed one and sent a copy directly to them, along with the other documentation they requested.

[Anonymous]

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@sarge12 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I recently reported ID theft on four derogatory accounts, and one utility company has been a huge pain to work with. They demanded tons of records, which I provided and which demonstrate very conclusively that I was renting and paying for utilities on an apartment in an entirely different state during the period that someone fraudulenty opened an account under my name on the other side of the country.

Rather than remove the fraudulent derogatories, the utility co has put a hard inquiry on my account:

---

Installment Loan Inquiry

SOUTHERN CT GAS obtained a copy of your EXPERIAN Credit Report.

A lender has requested a copy of your Credit Report for an installment loan. Every time you apply for credit, a 'hard inquiry' is placed on your Credit Report and it may stay on your report for 25 months.

---

I have NOT applied for an installment loan! This is completely false. I have not offered at any point to pay the balance on these accounts because they were opened FRAUDULENTLY. Can they really do this?

---

Are you sure that the person that stole your ID did not make a fraudulant credit app with them for an installment loan? You probably need to freeze your credit reports along with a fraud alert. Dispute the inquiry with Experian and Southern CT Gas. You should consider a good credit monitoring service in the future...Identity theft is a problem that is only getting worse. Some day I think free credit monitoring will be provided to all by the credit issuers, as their fraud losses increase, it will soon be in their best interest to do so.

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I guess it's not impossible, but I doubt it because:

1) The fraudulent accounts were opened & closed years ago. I never noticed because I wasn't keeping track of my credit score (dumb, yes, but I wasn't making much use of my credit). I don't know who stole my identity, but it appears that they opened a bunch of accounts, trashed my credit, and then stopped trying to open new accounts. It would be a pretty big coincidence for them to start again now.

2) Why would anyone committing ID fraud get an installment loan with a utility company? It's not like they ever intended to repay the debt they put under my name.

3) I didn't freeze my credit because I'm trying to rebuild, but I do have fraud alerts with all 3 bureaus.

4) Based on my interactions with this company, I genuinely think they're just trying to make it as painful as possible for me to get this cleared up.

[sarge12]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@sarge12 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I recently reported ID theft on four derogatory accounts, and one utility company has been a huge pain to work with. They demanded tons of records, which I provided and which demonstrate very conclusively that I was renting and paying for utilities on an apartment in an entirely different state during the period that someone fraudulenty opened an account under my name on the other side of the country.

Rather than remove the fraudulent derogatories, the utility co has put a hard inquiry on my account:

---

Installment Loan Inquiry

SOUTHERN CT GAS obtained a copy of your EXPERIAN Credit Report.

A lender has requested a copy of your Credit Report for an installment loan. Every time you apply for credit, a 'hard inquiry' is placed on your Credit Report and it may stay on your report for 25 months.

---

I have NOT applied for an installment loan! This is completely false. I have not offered at any point to pay the balance on these accounts because they were opened FRAUDULENTLY. Can they really do this?

---

Are you sure that the person that stole your ID did not make a fraudulant credit app with them for an installment loan? You probably need to freeze your credit reports along with a fraud alert. Dispute the inquiry with Experian and Southern CT Gas. You should consider a good credit monitoring service in the future...Identity theft is a problem that is only getting worse. Some day I think free credit monitoring will be provided to all by the credit issuers, as their fraud losses increase, it will soon be in their best interest to do so.

---

I guess it's not impossible, but I doubt it because:

1) The fraudulent accounts were opened & closed years ago. I never noticed because I wasn't keeping track of my credit score (dumb, yes, but I wasn't making much use of my credit). I don't know who stole my identity, but it appears that they opened a bunch of accounts, trashed my credit, and then stopped trying to open new accounts. It would be a pretty big coincidence for them to start again now.

2) Why would anyone committing ID fraud get an installment loan with a utility company? It's not like they ever intended to repay the debt they put under my name.

3) I didn't freeze my credit because I'm trying to rebuild, but I do have fraud alerts with all 3 bureaus.

4) Based on my interactions with this company, I genuinely think they're just trying to make it as painful as possible for me to get this cleared up.

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This clears up a lot, I assumed when you said you recently reported ID theft, that the theft was recent. So what you are doing is trying to get errors on your credit reports cleared up for accounts you never had which are on your reports. This is not always ID theft. It can be some deadbeat has a similar name or SS# as you and errantly ended up on your report. The fact that it sat on your report undisputed for years is going to make removal more difficult, but keep on pushing for removal, and ask for debt validation.