Hard inquiry from at&t, I use Verizon

Anonymous · ‎01-06-2017

Ok I checked my basic credit score and recent reports tonight and I found a hard inquiry from at&t! Reported yesterday on the 5th! I never even spoke with at&t! What should i do,and who should I call first at&t or equifax. P.s. I check my basic profile every Thursday-Friday night

Anonymous · ‎01-06-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
Ok I checked my basic credit score and recent reports tonight and I found a hard inquiry from at&t! Reported yesterday on the 5th! I never even spoke with at&t! What should i do,and who should I call first at&t or equifax. P.s. I check my basic profile every Thursday-Friday night

Hi Rob123,

Contact the company (AT&T) that made the inquiry. Ask them to prove you authorized the credit inquiry. Also tell AT&T to remove it from the credit reporting bureaus. And for sure this was a hard pull and not a soft pull?

If this is indeed not valid and you did not apply for credit with AT&T, then report it to FTC's website. You can download identity theft complaint form that you will use to send to any bank, creditor, as well as the credit reporting bureaus. FTC Identity Theft Webpage.

Also, you may want to place a credit freeze at each credit reporting bureau's website. You can also place a fraud alert which is free and lasts for about three (3) months.

You can dispute the hard inquiry, but it is difficult to dispute but in this case not impossible to have the hard pull removed because of identity theft. It may be better to dispute this by calling directly.

- Just my two cents

RobertEG · ‎01-06-2017

If you never made any application for credit or initiated any business transaction with them, the proper procedure is to simply file a police report making that assertion, and use the identity theft provisions of FCRA 605B to have the information blocked from your credit report.

The identity theft provisions of section 605B were added to the FCRA due to the fact that the dispute process will not mandate the deletion of information that was added by misuse of a consumer's identity. Verification can be made provided the business can show someone initiated an application for credit or for a qualifying business transaction. The identity theft process, on the other hand, avoids any involvement of the creditor/business, and requires only an assertion by the consumer, provided it is suppported by a police report.