Getting credit alerts for accounts that don't exist????

[Anonymous]

In the last month I have gotten three credit alerts.  2 were for new accounts and one was a credit inquiry.  None of these were from anything I had initiated or approved.  When I called the companys from the new accounts I was alerted about neither of them had any records of any accounts associated with me or my ssn.  What is going on with this?  I have also ran a fresh credit report since receiving these alerts and nothing associated with the accounts I was alerted to was on my current credit report.  Why is MyFico.com alerting me about accounts which apparently do not exists.  I am obviously worried about ID theft but can't figure out why I am getting these alerts and the companys have no records or me.  Any help is appreciated.

[Anonymous]

In the last month I have gotten three credit alerts.  2 were for new accounts and one was a credit inquiry.  None of these were from anything I had initiated or approved.  When I called the companys from the new accounts I was alerted about neither of them had any records of any accounts associated with me or my ssn.  What is going on with this?  I have also ran a fresh credit report since receiving these alerts and nothing associated with the accounts I was alerted to was on my current credit report.  Why is MyFico.com alerting me about accounts which apparently do not exists.  I am obviously worried about ID theft but can't figure out why I am getting these alerts and the companys have no records or me.  Any help is appreciated.

[CreditBob]

Here is what you should do. Contact the credit bureau & start the dispute process. Make copies of these alerts as well as the new accounts. And to be on the safe side you can add an initial fraud alert. And there is also the credit freeze.

There was a time when I had recieved an alert from Equifax and they could not find anything.

Check your soft inquiries as well.

[llecs]

Was this for ScoreWatch? I'd pull your 3 CRs via annualcreditreport.com and study all 3. If anything is not yours, then call the police and file a report for ID theft. Place a fraud alert on all 3 reports.

[Anonymous]

I pulled my experian report and all was as it should be on that one.  I don't have any more free reports from annualcreditreports.com left.  I have also called the financial institutions that was listed with the Scorewatch alert and they could find no records of any accounts in my name.  I will contact the credit reporting bureaus and file reports but this is wierd.

[Anonymous]

Looks like if there were an actual account that the company that the account was with would have records of it.  They have looked under my name, address, and ssn and found nothing.

[llecs]

OP, go to Equifax.com  and pull an EQ report. ScoreWatch monitors EQ only so if you got alerts from SW saying new accounts were added, you really would want to study that report. I'd check TU too. I think you can get your reports for free if you suspect ID theft. In not, definitely worth the purchase.

[haulingthescoreup]

--and it might be something as simple as someone else's new account that was reported with a mis-key on the social, but you still need to stop it now, before your reports get hopelessly entangled.

Go ahead and pay for a full report from EQ. It will be worth it in the long run.

[RobertEG]

Asserting that information in your credit report is "not mine" can be frustrating.  Its hard to prove a negative.

Congress, in recognition of this dilemma, included in the 2004 amendments to the FCRA the right of the consumer to directly require that a business entity that has extended credit of provided consideration for products or services provide to you, upon your assertion that these were not transactions authorized by you, and thus an issue of possible identity theft, a copy of "application and business transaction records in the control of the business entity, whether maintained by the business entity or by another person on behalf of the business entity, evidencing any transaction alleged to be the result of identity theft."  FCRA 609(e)(1).

To invoke this requirement, you must provide the following, as set forth under FCRA 609(e)(2):

Proof of your identity by presentation of any government issued ID;

Identification of the account, and of the disputed transactions for which evidence is sought;

Proof of claim for identity theft in the form of either a police report evidencing the claim, or an identity theft affidavit.

There is no charge for this request.  It carries a 30-day compliance date for response..

Once you have that information, it is no longer a 'he-said, she said."  You have evidence that you can factually challenge.  That, armed with the police report (which the FCRA calls an "identity theft report" under FCRA 603(q)), provides you with more than mere assertion to dispute the accuracy of any credit reporting. If they respond in writing, which they must do, stating that they have no such records, that is prima facie evidence of lack of verifiability of the information, and should thus require the CRA to issue a reinvestigative holding in response to any dispute made through them that the information is unverifiable, and thus delete the items from your CR.

So get a police/identity theft report, make the request under section 609(e)(1), and have at them.

Once you have the police report, you can additionally send that to the CRA, and require blockage of the items pertaining to alleged identity theft from your CR.  FCRA 605B.  That does not require prior verifiction of the assertions made.... your sworn police report is sufficient.

[Anonymous]

Ok, so I have now pulled reports from all three agencies and none of the accounts that I received alerts from SW are there.  I have also contacted each of the companies that these accounts were supposedly with and none of them can find any evidence of an account in my name, address, or SSN.  I guess now will will try contacting the customer support people here at my fico to see if they have any idea what is going on.

Thanks for all the info.

[distantarray]

Sometimes a person with a simliar name will come on your report. Regardless experian is the easiest way to remove oddly enough. You just have to call them inquire that you do not have any knowledge of the account and if the social is attached to the account, and if they don't just request to submit a dispute to someone of a similar name and they'll usually remove it immediately.