Equifax, oh Equifax - account "verified" - but it's not mine

[Anonymous]

On March 1st, an open car loan appeared on my credit report - though not as though it had been "added" that day. The tradeline even read it had been reported several years ago. I had proof it was never on my reports from numerous other pulls. I called Chase auto to make sure it wasn't fraud. Different address. Different dob. Different SSN. Different middle initial.

At the same time, two collections from comenity appeared with the same MO.

I filed a dispute for all three together after the mixed credit file department wouldn't help me on March 10.

I pull daily and noticed that my open accounts returned to 14 and collections returned to 0. No update yet from EQ that it's complete, but I imagine can see that the dispute is complete as of today. Was about to do the happy dance.

Except now the auto loan has been moved to Closed Accounts as a charge off and states it was added on March 5, 2017. That was the day I called them and informed them about it being there. 

Now this is the first time that they have done something like this, so I'm not entirely sure what my next move is. Do I move straight to a complaint through CFPB? This is seriously destroying my EQ score and I've had that report frozen since I found them. I realize I can do a MOV, but this is stopping me from moving forward on my mortgage.

[RobertEG]

Verification of disputes on accounts or other information that is asserted by a consumer to not be related to any account authorized by them requires that the furnisher make a reasonable investigation, and a determination supported by that investigation.  The furnisher is not required to legally "prove" that you were the party who authorized the account or other reported transactions.  For that reason, the FCRA dispute process has long been recognized as not being adequate to deal with consumer assertions of "account not mine."

The FCRA was amended to provide an alternate process for removal of such information that does not include any involvement of the furnisher of the reported information in its removal from a consumer's credit report.  Information can be blocked by an assertion that they did not authorize the account IF the assertion is in the form of a sworn statement before a law enforcement agency, which carries penalties for knowingly false statements.  That removes the account from your credit report and from scoring.

See FCRA 605B, and its discussion in the sticky thread related to "Identity Theft" in the upper portion of the General Credit Topics forum.

[Anonymous]

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@RobertEG wrote:

Verification of disputes on accounts or other information that is asserted by a consumer to not be related to any account authorized by them requires that the furnisher make a reasonable investigation, and a determination supported by that investigation.  The furnisher is not required to legally "prove" that you were the party who authorized the account or other reported transactions.  For that reason, the FCRA dispute process has long been recognized as not being adequate to deal with consumer assertions of "account not mine."

The FCRA was amended to provide an alternate process for removal of such information that does not include any involvement of the furnisher of the reported information in its removal from a consumer's credit report.  Information can be blocked by an assertion that they did not authorize the account IF the assertion is in the form of a sworn statement before a law enforcement agency, which carries penalties for knowingly false statements.  That removes the account from your credit report and from scoring.

See FCRA 605B, and its discussion in the sticky thread related to "Identity Theft" in the upper portion of the General Credit Topics forum.

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This isn't identity theft. It's just not my account. The address, ssn, and dob do not match. I have a common name. I have had my credit file mixed repeatedly with other people who live near me with the same first and last name. 

The "date reported" showed a date that was 2.5 years prior to when it appeared on my reports, because the file was merged with someone else's. Two other accounts, an address, and another ssn came with the merge. They removed the other address and ssn immediately when I spoke to them, but made me file a dispute for the accounts. The two collections were deleted, the Auto loan account remains.

I've already spoken to Chase 3 times about this and it just flat does not belong to me, not because of fraud, because it's just a different person with the same first and last name.

What do you mean they don't have to prove that it belongs to me? That's absurd, Robert.

[RobertEG]

I agree with your point that if you clearly feel the addition of the account was due to clerical error as opposed to the possibility that someone else used your identity, then the identity theft process would not be appropriate.  Often, a consumer has no knowledge of whether an account was added due to admin error, or due to someone having used their identity, and thus being log-jammed by the creditor can be overcome by use of the identity theft process if the consumer can assert that it may have been due to identity theft.  If you dont feel that assertion is proper, then I agree with your comments.

As for verification, a dispute requires that the furnisher make a reasonable investigation, and reach a finding.  The furnisher is not requried to prove their finding.  The process does not compel both parties to produce all relevant evidence to support their position, and thus legal proofs are not part of the process.

The issue is only whether the furnisher conducted a reasonable investigation, not whether they have proved that an account is yours.

In the normal case of identity theft, for example, they can rely upon documents that purport to have been submittted by the consumer without proving their legitimacy.

That lack of factual determination in an admin dispute process is the basis upon which congress amended the FCRA to permit the block of information without proofs based on an assertion by the consumer if that assertion is in the form of a sworn statement before a law enforcement agency. 

A complaint to the CFPB can certainly be made, but they have administrative authority over compliance with the FCRA, not the power to independently require proofs and reach a binding legal determination.  They must, if their investigation reqires interpretation of facts in their review of possible violation of the statute, bring the matter before the courts for determination just as would a consumer.  I would make an CFPB complaint, but would not expect them to conduct a factual review of the accuracy of the account as being yours.

That is ultimately the authority of the courts.

[Anonymous]

I filed a complaint on the 5th, and after receiving the "this item was verified as belonging to you" response that night, this morning the TL is gone.

Problem solved.