The FCRA only authorizes a fraud alert at the specific request of the consumer or his/her authorized rep.
No, there is no provision under the statute for a CRA to place a fraud alert on your credit file.
However, that is not so say that they dont do so. It happens all the time.
The CRAs have a policy that they have authority to act on behalf of a consumer for their protection whenever an issue of fraud or identity theft is raised, and thus consider themselves to be acting on behalf of the consumer.
You would have to be monitoring your reports to become aware of their posting of a fraud alert.
The statute clearly authorizes a consumer to remove a fraud alert at any time by sending notice to the CRA, accompanied by proof of identity, so if the CRA impses a fraud alet "on your behalf," you can always under the statute instruct them to remove it.
