Equifax updated address from before I was born

[Anonymous]

I had a msg from Credit Karma about a change to my Equifax report. The change is an address added, from December 1969.

Two problems, the address doesn't exist. I've checked everything, including tax roles. It's never existed. Secondly, I wasn't alive in Dec 1969.

My understanding is that CRA's report addresses based on what creditors report so this makes ever less sense. How worried should I be? Can Equifax tell me who reported this address?

[Medic981]

My Equifax CR states that they have had a file on me since 1974 when I was nine years old. The only thing that was going on at that time was my parents were going through a divorce.

Perhaps you were a twinkle in your daddy's eye in 1969? I would dispute the address as it could be used in a verification process.

[Anonymous]

My father must have been psychic, my parents hadn't even met yet in 1969 😁

I'll dispute it today but I really want to know whose reporting it in case it is identity theft.

[Medic981]

I had a mysterious address pop up on my Equifax last year. When I finally disputed it stating that "I have never lived at that address, I have never received mail at that address, and I have never applied for credit using that address". Equifax placed a notation on my account as follows, "ID SECURITY ALERT: FRAUDULENT APPLICATIONS MAY BE SUBMITTED IN MY NAME OR MY IDENTITY MAY HAVE BEEN USED WITHOUT MY CONSENT TO FRAUDULENTLY OBTAIN GOODS OR SERVICES. DO NOT EXTEND CREDIT WITHOUT FIRST VERIFYING THE IDENTITY OF THE APPLICANT. THIS SECURITY ALERT WILL BE MAINTAINED FOR 90 DAYS BEGINNING 08-01-18." The very nice folks at Equifax then told their friends at TransUnion and Experian and they too placed this notation on my accounts.

I would add to your dispute that "I had not been born yet on this date". I am curious as to how the CRAs would respond to that.

[Anonymous]

I will do that. What's really strange is that the address does not exist, at all. It's on any map, no tax records, no property appraiser records or zoning records. Very strange.

[JVille]

Did you dispute IN Writing?

[iv]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
I had a msg from Credit Karma about a change to my Equifax report. The change is an address added, from December 1969.

Two problems, the address doesn't exist. I've checked everything, including tax roles. It's never existed. Secondly, I wasn't alive in Dec 1969.

---

Well, I can't tell you anything about the address... but the date actually "makes sense". (Well, has a reason, anyway.)

Many, many systems use "UNIX time", which is internally stored as the number of seconds that have passed since Midnight, January 1st, 1970, frequently without a local timezone applied.

As such, when a blank value in a database gets treated as a zero, and then displayed as a time/date, it's Jan 1st 1970 - and when you apply any US timezone to that time/date... it becomes late at night on Dec 31st 1969!

While real events certainly did happen on Dec 31st 1969... in 99.9999% of cases, if you see that date, it means there's just missing data or a zero present in the data.

In this case, it just means that the address record is missing a date completely.

---

@Anonymous wrote:
My understanding is that CRA's report addresses based on what creditors report so this makes ever less sense. How worried should I be? Can Equifax tell me who reported this address?

---

I'd be somewhat worried (since it's possible that someone could be applying for credit in your name with that address), but it could also just be a data quality issue at one of your lenders, at Equifax, or at CK. Do you have other Equifax report sources you can check? Or pull your annualcreditreport.com for Equifax if you haven't in the last 12 months.

Is it only on your Equifax report so far?  I ask, because Experian happens to have a very easy way to match address records to the lenders that are reporting them. Maybe sign up at creditscore.com to get that report as well, if you haven't already.

[Anonymous]

When I got home this evening I had hard copies of Experian and Equifax credit reports waiting for me. Both show addresses I've never lived at (these did not appear on my online reports from either bureau).

I'm definitely concerned about this. Four years ago I was the victim of ID theft when I was hospitalized out of state (my driver's license, SS Card, Concealed Carry permit etc was stolen). Cable accounts, on-line loans, AT&T accounts and others were opened) It was over a year before I was able to begin getting the fraud items removed and over 6 months until the fraud all came off.

Now more fake addresses are showing up. I've locked my reports and will contact Social Security Monday. Until and unless fake accounts show up all I can do is dispute the addresses.

[Anonymous]

No, this just came up. My normal procedure is to dispute online and if I lose the dispute I follow up via snail mail. For this I'm planning on calling then follow up in writing if needed.

[iv]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
When I got home this evening I had hard copies of Experian and Equifax credit reports waiting for me. Both show addresses I've never lived at (these did not appear on my online reports from either bureau).

---

On the Experian report, notice that each address has a unique ID number?

You can match that number up to the address ID reported alongside each account to see who is reporting each address.

(Experian makes that far easier to match up than the other two CRAs, by including the IDs on the paper and online ACR reports.)