Non authorized PayPal hard inquiry

[Anonymous]

Hello, woke up this morning to a FICO alert that there his a hard inquiry from SYNCB/PPC. Specifically on transunion. I did not make this! I am very worried as my spouse and I are in the beginning stages of a mortgage construction loan for a new build.
This comes at the worst time! If I call to dispute this, how will it effect this mortgage process? Are we totally screwed?

[Anonymous]

You describe the inquiry as non-authorized.  You likely mean one of two things:

(1)  You have had no dealings with PayPal any time close to the date of the inquiry, and have no idea why PayPal might have pulled your credit report.

(2)  You do have some idea why they might have done so, but you never authorized them to do that credit pull and certainly not a hard pull.

If #1, it suggests the possibility of identity theft.

If #2, we'd need to hear more about what your interaction was with PP.  A common belief is that the consumer needs to give the potential creditor his authorization before they are legally permitted to do a hard pull -- but that turns out not to be true.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for responding. Yes, I have not used paypal in probably 10 years. This falls under your #1 for sure.

The notification of hard inquiry I received actually came from credit karma, not myFICO (I mistakingly thought it did because I get alerts from both). It specifically said transunion is reporting it.
I called myFICO and they have nothing on their end showing this hard inquiry. I contacted PayPal and there also was nothing connected with my (very old and un-used) PayPal account. The gentleman put me in contact with their Syncrony bank/PayPal department and she also shows no activity of anyone trying to apply using any of my personal information. So now, I’m very confused. I tried contacting transunion, but I can’t get anywhere through their automated phone tree, assuming it is because it’s the weekend. I’m still feeling pretty uneasy about this.

[Anonymous]

You should indeed feel very uneasy about this.

Another free tool out there that gives frequent updates of one's TU report is WalletHub.  In fact they give daily updates, whereas Karma only gives weekly.  They are a completely separate company from Credit Karma.  I would sign up for WalletHub tomorrow if were you and check it each day.

If you see the alert also appear on WH by Tues or Wed, I would then pull your TransUnion report at annualcreditreport.com.  If you see the same inquiry at ACR then you'll know it is certain.  (Wait until you get a confirmation from WH, however, since you only get one ACR report per year.)

I would ignore whatever the myFICO customer service rep might have told you.  Do you have a subscription for one of the myFICO products?  That's a question -- not a suggestion that you pay for a subscription, which at this point would not help you solve this problem.

[Anonymous]

Thanks again. Yes I do use WalletHub and it has alerted on there this morning. I also subscribe to myFICO 3B and it’s not on there yet.

[DaveInAZ]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you for responding. Yes, I have not used paypal in probably 10 years. This falls under your #1 for sure.

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Do you remember if you had a Bill Me Later credit account? Bill Me Later became PayPal Credit, and Synchrony Bank recently purchased PayPal Credit, and the inquiry "SYNCB/PPC" indicates Synchrony Bank/PayPal Credit. If you haven't used the account in 10 years they might have pulled your credit report to check that everything was OK, and no doubt buried in their terms of service is an authorization to pull your credit report.

[Anonymous]

I’ve never had a bill me later account either. I too the suggestion and got my TU report just now and reviewed thouroughly. There are no new unfamiliar accounts and definitely not a PayPal credit type thing. That hard inquiry is there though! Today’s date, with the purpose stating “CREDIT TRANSACTION”

[Anonymous]

Looking at my report further, it states that the I formation provided about me to PayPal, is an address I lived at 10 or so years ago.

About a month ago, I was pick pocketed on a business trip. My wallet was stolen. In it was 2 credit cards, my personal bank checking debit/credit card, my DL and my Costco membership card. I immediately cancelled the cards of course.
Do you think someone could have stolen my identity or tried to take out credit accounts with the info from my wallet? I mean my SS wasn’t in there!

[Anonymous]

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/Victim-of-Identity-Theft-What-To-Do-to-Protec...

[Anonymous]

My husband received an inquiry with this same Syncb/ppc on his file where I have been trying to help him with his credit and all of a sudden this appears. He has not applied for a CC of any sort nor did he give authorizaton for anyone to pull his credit. I make sure of that..Nor Have I applied for anything in his name, so this inquiry should be removed because it is fraudulent.