Fraudulent Credit Inquiries

[Anonymous]

Last week I was notified by Credit Karma of a new hard inquiry on my account. Upon researching, it was listed as Plain Green Loan. I immediately called them and to find out if an account had been opened in my name. They are a payday loan company, which isn't something that I would be interested in. They advised me that they were unable to find an account using my name and to send an email to their disputes company. I called Transunion who confirmed the inquiry. I added security freezes on my accounts for all 3 credit reporting agencies. When I checked my Equifax there was a soft inquiry for a company called Clarity Services. It appears they do credit reporting for payday lenders. I also reached out to their customer support department. Since neither company has a dedicated customer service/fraud line. I filed a BBB complaint. This is in addition to the security freeze, police report, FTC complaints, and complaints with the AZ, MT, FL Attorney Generals offices. A person from Clarity Services called me back and said in order to dispute the inquiry I need to provide them with a copy of my license and SSN. Why should i have to provide you with anything? They need to prove tome that they had a permissible purpose to run my credit. Has anyone had any luck combating either Plain Green Loans, or Clarity Services? Are there any additional steps I should take to protect my identity? HELP! I worked wayyyy to hard to build my credit to let some schiesty company(s) ruin it. Also does anyone have any information on Payday lead generators? Their actions lead me to believe this is what is going on. However, I am still wary that someone took out a loan in my name. 

[Anonymous]

in my experience the only CRA that I have been able to get them to remove the inquiry is Experian. Equifax and TransUnion will tell you that you need to contact the company directly. When I placed a freeze on my credit report a new inquiry would still be reflected, however, they would be unable to open the account in my name. I had around 30 inquires that were fraud that I was unable to get removed.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

in my experience the only CRA that I have been able to get them to remove the inquiry is Experian. Equifax and TransUnion will tell you that you need to contact the company directly. When I placed a freeze on my credit report a new inquiry would still be reflected, however, they would be unable to open the account in my name. I had around 30 inquires that were fraud that I was unable to get removed.

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If the CRA's refuse to remove obviously and demonstrably fraudulent inquiries, then an ITS and follow-up lawsuit (if necessary) is in order.

[Anonymous]

What does an ITS stand for?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
What does an ITS stand for?

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Intent To Sue letter, outlining how and what laws they are violating and how it is damaging you.

[RobertEG]

I would suggest a few information-gathering steps that you might consider in developing any civil action or in filing a complaint with the FTC or CFPB agasinst a party who procures your credit report without permissible purpose.......

You are entitled, under FCRA 616 and 617, to bring civil action respectively for either willful or negligent noncompliance with a provision of the FCRA (except for the accuracvy of information).  The FTC/CFPB can also inititiate proceedings seeking fine or imprisonment against a party who obtains consumer information from a CRA under false pretenses, such as by falsification of a statement of permissible purpose.  See FCRA 619

I would thus urge making sure that you collect any factual information should you contenmplate civil action, and also provide that information to the FTC/CFPB for theri consideration of possible criminal action under section 619.

To that end, FCRA 609(a)(3)(A)-(B) provide consumers the right to send a requst to the CRA for identification of parties who have made inquiry for access to their credit report, and FCRA 609(a)(1) provides consumers the right ot any information of record in their files, which includes the required statement of permissible purpose that was presented by the party who obtained your credit report.