FCRA 605B block apparently in place

[CrSter]

For several months now been fighting both with my credit card bank and all three credit bureaus over some large unauthorized fraudulent charges made in person by someone who stole my credit card.  Both in person police report and FTC Identity theft reports were made.

The credit bureaus have been refusing to block the account, which has gone to closed and charge off status, with boilerplate letters that are hard to understand, notwithstanding that I have mailed them the police/FTC identity theft reports.

Then suddenly the account was deleted from all three credit bureaus, apparently at the same time - no trace remains of it anywhere.  My credit score suddenly jumped almost 200 pts back over 800 as it has always been.  I have not received any communication yet from the bureaus about that they blocked the account.

For anyone who has been successful in getting an account blocked at the credit bureau level, what kind of notification(s) did you receive?  How do you know if the account disappeared at the bureau level due to a FCRA 605B block, or due to the bank's crediting the charges or dropping the matter?

[FireMedic1]

Welcome to the forums @CrSter 

Did you happen to read about the FRCA guidlines?

https://consumer.ftc.gov/system/files/consumer_ftc_gov/pdf/fcra-605b.pdf 

"A consumer reporting agency shall block the reporting of any information in the file of a consumer that the consumer identifies as information that resulted from an alleged identity theft, not later than 4 business days after the date of receipt."

Congrats it no longer appears.

[CrSter]

Hi!  Thank you.

Yes I am very familiar with the law on this.  After I filed the in-person police report I started mailing that and the FTC identity theft report to all of the credit bureaus (and of course, to the credit card company).  I included demands to block the account because the entire balance on it was due to identity theft / credit card fraud.  One by one they sent me boilerplate letters to the effect of "we're not blocking anything."  Sometimes the letters would mention alleged deficiencies in whatever I sent, and never specifically, just by listing rows of issues and stating that the problem could be one or more of the following, and other times the letters listed no deficiencies and made no sense.  I kept re-sending the police / FTC reports over the course of a few months, and trying to address the deficiencies by saying that nothing was wrong in repeated short letters.  Meantime the account in question had gone to 120 days late and been charged off.

About a month ago I changed tactics and just asked the bureaus to post a consumer statement that stated that Everything should be blocked pursuant to FCRA 605B and that the entire balance due on the account was a result of identity theft, and then one of the bureaus did post the statement but the other two did not.  Then suddenly I got the notification from my credit monitoring services that my credit score had jumped almost 200 points (and was back over 800 the way it always was) and that a derog account was no longer appearing on my credit profile, I pulled the actual credit report from all three credit bureaus and the charged off account was no longer there.

Yes I am pretty happy but in that I have not received yet any notification from the bureaus that they have blocked anything, I don't know whether the account's disappearance is as a result of a 605B block or the credit card company's giving up on trying to collect the debt and no longer reporting it.  However, it seems to me that if the credit card co. had changed status of the account and sided with me on the fraud dispute that it would show as paid, not simply disappear, so I am guessing that the credit bureaus are the heroes here, not the credit card co.   On the other hand, do all three credit bureaus typically block an account at exactly the same time?

[FireMedic1]

Me personally am not a FRCA expert. They all have to abide by the law. Take what you got and Run Forrest Run!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[CrSter]

I'm not rocking the boat.  

[Remedios]

Legally, once an account is suppressed, CRAs must notify you of suppression. Sadly, I cannot remember how much time they are given to complete this action. 

If you do not get a letter informing you, and if CRA will not tell you if it's been suppressed versus lender choosing to not report (the account can re-appear in that case),  it's probably lender ceasing reporting. 

Even without reporting they can still continue attempts to collect as there is no rule that states lender must report, the only requirement is that if they report, they report accurate data.  

Your lender knows of an account has been suppressed, just like CRA have to notify you, they also have to notify furnisher of the information. Once furnisher is notified of suppression, all collection efforts must stop, account cannot be sold, either.  

This should be a relatively short process when everything is clear cut, so it appears there is some doubt on the part of CRAs as far as legitimacy of your claim. Process becomes longer and harder when abuse is suspected. 

It's probably in your best interest to find out if account has been suppressed or not to avoid future surprises. 

[CrSter]

I've Googled the 605B block topic online, and I seem to be the only one who has posted about (apparently) having an account blocked.  All of the topics I have found on this subject online are complaints from people about how the credit bureaus are refusing to block even after they submit police reports.  

I raised a big stink with the credit card company proving that I was not the one who made the charges.  I gave all that evidence to the police, and also to the credit bureaus and credit card co., along with the FTC Identity Theft report.

There was never any doubt that I did not make the charges, supposedly the issue was that I didn't discover the fraud immediately, but I did report it within days.  That's of course a non-issue in that I reported it well within time limits, but sometimes a credit card co. will try to play games, I suppose.

If the credit card co. did give up on the account at this point after all the pressure I put on them, it would most likely be because they gave up period.

Anyway, the main benefit I see from figuring out what exactly happened is peace of mind.

For now, I'll just wait a week or two to see what arrives in the mail.  I have credit monitoring in place for all three bureaus as well.

[CrSter]

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@Remedios wrote:

Legally, once an account is suppressed, CRAs must notify you of suppression. Sadly, I cannot remember how much time they are given to complete this action. 

---

When I look at the statute I see that the credit bureaus must notify the credit issuer ("the furnisher of information identified by the consumer") when a block is placed, and me when they decline or rescind the block, then there is some hard to follow section about "resellers" where it differentiates between resellers with or without file and talks about which ones have to give me the consumer, notice when a block is placed.

I believe that "resellers" are not Experian, TransUnion or Equifax, they are more like "tri-merge" agencies that do not maintain their own databases, combine credit reports, and re-sell them.

So, as far as I can see, there is nothing in FCRA 605B that states that a credit bureau must provide me notice when they block, only when they decline or rescind the block.

[CrSter]

There are, by the way, state statutes that parallel the FCRA 605(B), such as California Code, Civil Code - CIV § 1785.16

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&sectionNum=1785.16.

Anyway, eventually I did receive a letter from the credit card bank that they had sold the charged off debt to a collection agency / debt collector.  My understanding is that this violates at least Cal. Civ. Code § 1785.16.2 in that the bank was on notice that the charges were as a result of identity theft fraud and they should not have sold the debt.  I have not heard from the collection agency yet.

Around the same time I spoke on the phone to all three credit bureaus, and although to some extent the answers given were a little unclear, they all said that the account had been deleted "because it was due to fraud."  At least one of them said that the bank had nothing to do with blocking it - that the credit bureau had done it.  One even said that we blocked it and the bank agreed that it should be blocked, but again, these are just customer service agents at the credit bureau, albeit in the special fraud department, they don't always know exactly what is going on, has been my experience.

My credit remains clear, with credit scores above 800.  The charged off account remains deleted - off - my credit reports.

I've had a team of lawyers handling this case for many months now, on a contingency basis, and after I gave proper notice some time ago to the bank and the credit bureaus, the attorneys are filing a federal lawsuit against the bank and the credit bureaus for various federal and state violations, including that they didn't act promptly to block the information, which did cause credit issues for me this year.  Based on how the defendants respond, we'll know exactly what happened and when as far as the blocking.  Probably they'll all just settle and the case will be resolved without going to trial.

Although I'm defininitely a little apprehensive about rocking the boat, I think it's best to follow through with the lawsuit to make sure this is all cleared permanently.

[CrSter]

As an update, the account in question never returned to my credit bureaus and no one ever bothered me about collections on it.  My credit remains perfect.  This matter was about three years ago, so one more year and the statute of limitations will have expired and the debt will become uncollectable anyway.

It could have had to do with that we sued the credit card company and all three credit bureaus then settled with them.  It could merely have had to do with that I got a verified police report filed in person and submitted that to the credit bureaus.

By the way, although a FTC Identity Theft dot gov report should be enough to get the job done, my experience was that only an in person filed police report was adequate to get the credit card company and credit bureaus to take action.