Sample Letter to remove Unauthorized Inquiry w/ Police Report Reference

[Anonymous]

I had someone that tried to take out a loan under my SS and had several hard inquiries. I contacted our police department and filed an identity theft and was given a report number. Once I received my report number I sent all the lenders that pulled my report to remove their inquiries. I read this one from here as well but I edited some wordings.

I hope this helps anyone else that is looking for similar template:

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Lender’s Name

FAX: Their Fax Number or Email Number

Re: Credit Department, Dispute Hard Inquiry

To Whom It May Concern:

I have noticed that you have placed an inquiry on my ___(CRA)____ credit file dated ____(DATE pulled)___. As you probably know, Credit Reporting Agencies treat inquiries as a statement of fact and will not allow a consumer to dispute them. Since it is against federal law (Fair Credit Reporting Act—15 USC § 1681n(a)(1)(B) for an entity to view a customer’s credit report without a “permissible purpose,” I am writing to inquire as to your alleged purpose for doing so since I did not apply or request credit from your organization.

Based on the evidence in my possession, this inquiry was performed under false pretenses as described in the clear language of the law. 15 USC § 1681n(a)(1)(B) states, in part, “in the case of liability of a natural person for obtaining a consumer report under false pretenses or knowingly without a permissible purpose, actual damages sustained by the consumer as a result of the failure or $1,000, whichever is greater.

I have filed a police report ____(police department)____ on ___(date filed)___ with a report number# ___(report number)___ for identity theft. This is informing you that this was a fraudulent application and I did not authorize your company to pull my report. I do hope that we can settle this matter amicably. Please remove this hard inquiry from my credit report upon receipt of this letter to avoid further damage to my credit. Your immediate attention is appreciated in regards to this matter.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Your Name (don’t put your SS#)

Address

City, State

Email (optional)

Phone Number

Attachment: (attach a snap shot of the report here)

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[RobertEG]

You are asserting to the party that they lacked any permissible purpose.

That is fine as far as it goes, but it is, in my opinion, premature to also accuse them of making the inquiry under false pretenses until you receive their response.

False pretenses is an assertion of knowlingly false inquiry.  I would first obtain their explanation before making any such accusation.

Inquiries are also permissible for reasons other than a consumer initiated request for credit.

For example, if you inititiated any business transaction with them for which there is also a legitimate business need to review your credit, that would be a permissible purpose.

I would highly recommend waiting for their response to your request for their statement of permissilble purpose before asserting that it was done under false pretenses.

Additionally, they have no need to respond to such a request, and can choose to simply ignore you.

The only way to place your request under a required response would be to send as a direct dispute under FCRA 623(a)(8).

However, issues regarding inquiries are explicitly exempted from the direct dispute process under the impletmenting regulations at 16 CFR 660.4.

I would expect your communication to be ignored by the inquiree.

Why are you not simply sending the police report to the CRA as using it as basis to require block of the inquiree from your credit report under the provisions of FCRA 605B?

That requires NO involvement of the inquiree.  It would cover the obvious possibility of an inquiry being made in good faith and with a permissible purpose, but being based on a transaction or inquiry made by one other than you.  Any such inquiry would not have been made under false pretenses by the inquiree.

If you wish to investigate the issue of false pretenses, that would be an evidentiary matter that would be pursued, in my opinion, in the courts.

I would first treat as an identity theft issue without accusation of a false pretenses inquiry.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your feedback, ofcourse I made all the initial calls before I sent them the letter when they refuse to delete the inquiries. I also called EQ and told them I faxed the police report, I was advised that I needed to fax it to all the ones that I did not authorize to pull the report, they cannot delete the inquiries, it has to be done from the lenders. 

[RobertEG]

The asserted fraud/identity theft would be on the part of someone having used your identity to apply for the loan, not on the part of the creditor for having submitted a requst for your credit report based upon the fraud/identity theft.  Thus, it is not proper to accuse the lendor of knowingly submitted a credit inquiry under false pretenses.

Their pretenses appear to have been accurate.... to review the credit of a party who has initiated a request for credit. 

The CRA is misstating their obligation if they refuse to block based on an identity theft (police) report.

FCRA 605B places the requirement on the CRA, not on anyone else.

Make sure you have included all of the items required under FCRA 605B, with an FTC-approved version of an identity theft affidavit as your required statement, and re-submit to the CRA along with a government-issued photo ID as proof of identity, and clearly cite the blocking requirment of FCRA 605B.

If the CRA then refuses to block, you can either file a formal complaint with the CFPB or initiate your own civil action against the CRA for clear violation of the blocking requirement of section 605B.

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you for your feedback, ofcourse I made all the initial calls before I sent them the letter when they refuse to delete the inquiries. I also called EQ and told them I faxed the police report, I was advised that I needed to fax it to all the ones that I did not authorize to pull the report, they cannot delete the inquiries, it has to be done from the lenders. 

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That would be SOP. The CRAs do NOT be deleting inquiries based on your documentation. The lender needs to initiate the deletion. 

I had an unauthorized inquiry from PenFed on my EQ report. I notified PenFed of this and provided them with an image showing the inquiry on my EQ report along with a cover letter asking for removal. PenFed investigated, mailed me a letter saying agreeing the inquiry needed to be removed and stating they had contacted EQ to remove the inquiry. The inquiry was removed but, took a couple months.

The above was done without resorting to any regulations.  Referencing regulations is not a good starting point in communications with creditors. After all, they were just trying to accommodate your request - not knowing it was someone else. So, no fraud on their part.

[RobertEG]

The identity theft blocking procedure applies to any information that was the result of identity theft.

It is not a dispute.

It does not "delete" the information from the consumer's credit file, it only prevents the CRA from continued inclusion of the inquiry in credit reports they issue to others.

They can comply with the blocking provision by, for example, simply re-coding as soft, thus preventing its inclusion in any credit report available to anyone other than the consumer.

[Anonymous]

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@RobertEG wrote:

The identity theft blocking procedure applies to any information that was the result of identity theft.

It is not a dispute. In this case, let say that identity theft resulted an open account in your name, can CRA delete that or block it from posting on your report until further investigation? or does it continue to show on your credit report pending investigation?

It does not "delete" the information from the consumer's credit file, it only prevents the CRA from continued inclusion of the inquiry in credit reports they issue to others.

They can comply with the blocking provision by, for example, simply re-coding as soft, thus preventing its inclusion in any credit report available to anyone other than the consumer. I never have dealt with these lenders before, they are very vicious - I sent them the police report, and like you said, they negate that fact, in fact the very next day, this said lender sent the application to 2 different other lenders and those 2 different other lenders pulled my report as well!! 

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[Anonymous]

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@Thomas_Thumb wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you for your feedback, ofcourse I made all the initial calls before I sent them the letter when they refuse to delete the inquiries. I also called EQ and told them I faxed the police report, I was advised that I needed to fax it to all the ones that I did not authorize to pull the report, they cannot delete the inquiries, it has to be done from the lenders. 

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That would be SOP. The CRAs do NOT be deleting inquiries based on your documentation. The lender needs to initiate the deletion. 

I had an unauthorized inquiry from PenFed on my EQ report. I notified PenFed of this and provided them with an image showing the inquiry on my EQ report along with a cover letter asking for removal. PenFed investigated, mailed me a letter saying agreeing the inquiry needed to be removed and stating they had contacted EQ to remove the inquiry. The inquiry was removed but, took a couple months.

The above was done without resorting to any regulations.  Referencing regulations is not a good starting point in communications with creditors. After all, they were just trying to accommodate your request - not knowing it was someone else. So, no fraud on their part.

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Ofcourse I did not just send them the letter without trying to work things out - It resulted few hard inquiries, I called 2 and explained and they immediately told me that they sent the request to remove the inquiries... however I have one that I called today and told them that the application was fraudulent, well hold and behold... the very next day they forwarded the application to 2 other lenders who then pulled my report as well.... so what to do in that situation.... I had to file a police report and sent to them, and yet, I called and still they said it's unlikely the application was fraudulent and just hung up!!! So I sent the letter to go with the police report. I called and was told they are investigating...... and I asked that they made sure the application they have is CLOSE... they didnt say anything and just said call back in 48 hours. ugh.

[RobertEG]

The identity theft provisions were added to the FCRA to avoid any need for or issue of any "investigation."

There is no dispute, and no investigation period.

Blockage from your credit report relies only on a statement made by the consumer, provided it is a sworn statement made before a law enforcement agency, and thus carries criminal penalties for knowingly false statements.  It becomes the SOLE basis for blocking the infomation from the consumer's credit report.  The block must occur within 4 days of receipt by the CRA of the items required under FCRA 605B.

Yes, blocking applies to an entire account if identified in a police report as having been opened by use of your identity.