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Equifax - countless violations

Monday, September 04, 2006

Equifax & Capital One motion for summary judgment granted—APPEAL is next

This is really something.  The judge can see that the failure to report credit limits is lowering FICO scores, but he doesn’t think it’s necessary for Capital One to report the limits.  He also doesn’t see willful violations despite the CONTINUED refusal to report the credit limits by Equifax despite my disputes including mailing of my statements with the correct limits.

Hmmmm .....  how could the failure to report the limits after 3 years of litigation NOT be willful?

Beats me.  Of course there’s a LOT to appeal, such as the ruling that consumers can’t authenticate the consumer disclosures they received from CRAs.

And that I wasn’t allowed to conduct discovery, I was railroaded.

Another really interesting issue is that incorrect data on consumer disclosures doesn’t result in FCRA violations because that’s not information transmitted to creditors. 

Of course one of my claims against Ameriquest was that it failed to provide me with the reports they received after I applied for a mortgage and they declined me.  Despite the recording of the call with loan agent Beatrice promising that she would immediately mail me the report on the web, the court ruled that Ameriquest didn’t have to give me the reports.

So, you can see how this works.  Creditors and CRAs conspire to protect each other and perjury is the norm.

And in fact, MOST creditors don’t get ANY credit reports, all they get is the score and they approve or decline based on that.  The beauty of the credit scoring is that no little or no particular data is identified as derogatory.

Creditors like Capital One even refuse to assist their customers by providing information about fraudulent charges due to ID theft.  And the court ruled that Capital One has no obligation to assist me or any consumer.

That’s life in 2006.  These thugs openly protect the criminals.  I couldn’t even file a police report, there was nothing to investigate.  I would have had to file a lawsuit against the unidentified person who used my card and then I could have probably subpoenad the Capital One records.  All that to be able to file a police report.

I also sued both Ameriquest and Target for failing to provide me with the adverse action letter and again, the court sided with Ameriquest.

And even if you actually get the adverse action letter, it doesn’t give the reason for the decline, just that the credit report was a factor.  That’s not nearly enough to convince a judge like Neil Wake that a specific corporation did anything wrong.  The incorrect data has been transmitted to creditors literally hundreds of times, as evidenced by the many inquiries listed on the consumer disclosures.

Equifax defrauded me out of several prepaid reports, but that claim was dismissed because those reports I bought at the Equifax site are actually resold by one of its subsidiaries and of course Equifax isn’t responsible for its subsidiaries.  TO DATE, they haven’t even refunded those payments.

Even after 3 years of litigation I’m still shocked by the blatant fraud and judges’ approvals of this crap and the many deliberate lies submitted by the corporate lawyers and employees.  I won’t be crying if this entire so-called “civilized” world is bombed back into the stone age.  This isn’t just about credit reporting, there’s the complete absence of any ethics, morals, integrity…

2 guys get 6 months jail for stealing food from the TRASH

The owner of the trash did NOT want to prosecute the “thieves”.

We’ll see what happens with the appeal, the 9th circuit has issued some good rulings.

8/29/06: Order granting Capital One and Equifax MSJ

Friday, May 26, 2006

Social security numbers and birth dates for 26 million Vets stolen - demand your PIN!

WHY are social security numbers used to identify persons for the purpose of obtaining credit?

http://www.firstgov.gov/veteransinfo.shtml

Latest Information on Veterans Affairs Data Security

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has recently learned that an employee, a data analyst, took home electronic data from the VA, which he was not authorized to do. This behavior was in violation of VA policies. This data contained identifying information including names, social security numbers, and dates of birth for up to 26.5 million veterans and some spouses, as well as some disability ratings. Importantly, the affected data did not include any of VA’s electronic health records nor any financial information. The employee’s home was burglarized and this data was stolen. The employee has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

Appropriate law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the VA Inspector General’s office, have launched full-scale investigations into this matter. Authorities believe it is unlikely the perpetrators targeted the items because of any knowledge of the data contents. It is possible that they remain unaware of the information which they possess or of how to make use of it. However, out of an abundance of caution, the VA is taking all possible steps to protect and inform our veterans.

The VA is working with members of Congress, the news media, veterans service organizations, and other government agencies to help ensure that veterans and their families are aware of the situation and of the steps they may take to protect themselves from misuse of their personal information. The VA will send out individual notification letters to veterans to every extent possible. Additionally, working with other government agencies, the VA has set up a manned call center that veterans may call to get information about this situation and learn more about consumer identity protections. That toll free number is 1-800-FED INFO (1-800-333-4636). The call center will operate from 8 am to 9 pm (EDT), Monday-Saturday as long as it is needed.

....

The VA does NOTHING useful at all—instead they urge the vets to hand their cash over to the credit bureaus.

For years I’ve demanded that the credit bureaus issue user changeable PINs to secure my credit files—as all banks have been doing for decades to secure accounts.  It’s not rocket science, it’s as simple as adding a new field for the PIN to the credit files and to the software provided to creditors who order credit reports.  Instead of creditors and their employees running the credit for anyone whose name and address they have, they ought to provide the PIN the consumer chose.

Of course you can’t expect the credit bureaus to VOLUNTARILY give up a huge junk of their business:

1) the profits from the sales of credit monitoring products to consumers.

2) the profits from the sales of credit reports WITHOUT a permissible purpose.

Equifax is cashing in on the lates data breach:

Let us help protect YOU

Equifax recommends the free annual reports, doesn’t disclose 45 day investigations

Equifax does NOT disclose that you should NOT order the free annual report if your credit is important because Equifax will extend the investigations of your disputes from 30 days to 45 days.  If you are an ID theft victim, that’s the LAST thing you need.

Equifax recommends the dangerous FRAUD ALERTS.

Of course they don’t explain that you may be unable to obtain credit that YOU apply for and that you may not even be able to obtain your OWN credit reports anymore.

Equifax falsely advertises that their credit monitoring services PROTECT consumers form identity theft.

The giant lie.  AT BEST, you will be informed of the ID theft AFTER it occurred.

At 50% off Equifax stands to make about $14 millions if all vets ordered at the discounted price of $49.95.

Congress even investigates oil companies, but they do NOTHING but create MORE business for the CRAs through ID theft.  They should have added to the 2003 FACT Act that the credit bureaus must allow consumers to secure their credit files with PINs, as banks have done for decades.

Whether it’s stupidity or corruption, the legislators all act as if they get a percentage of the CRAs’ profits.

There’s only ONE way to change this corrupt system:

Publish all this personal data and sell it to numerous criminals worldwide.  Not all of the 26 million vets are worker bees.  Some are even legislators.  If enough people in POWER and major campaign contributors are at risk of ID theft, they’ll require PINs.  Congress COULD vote for legislation requiring that CRAs secure credit files with user changeable PINs on Tuesday.

Instead of handing their cash over to the CRAs for credit monitoring services that do NOT prevent ID theft, consumer would make a toll-free call to set up their PIN and never worry about ID theft due to data breaches again.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Equifax:  “Intentionally making false statements is punishable by law”

On the Equifax dispute page:

“NOTE: Intentionally making any false statement to a consumer reporting agency for the purpose of having it placed on a consumer report is punishable by law in some states.”

I’d really like to know what the punishment is and in which states.  Please post if you know.

If making a false statement in a credit dispute is “punishable by law”, maybe it’s also “punishable by law” for CRAs and creditors to submit false declarations under oath to the courts.

I’d consider moving to any state where they can’t get away with their lies.

And a reminder:  Do NOT order your free annual report if your credit is important!

“Equifax verifies all credit account, public record, and collection account information with the original sources when you initiate an investigation. This verification process can take as long as 30 days from the date the investigation was started. Investigations because of your FACT Act free disclosure may take up to 45 days.”

Equifax extended the investigation for a client to 45 days several MONTHS after she had obtained the free annual report.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Don’t get the free annual credit reports - need class action against Equifax!

A client’s experience:

“This SPECIAL CASES rep claims my EQ dispute and investigation will take 45 DAYS since all the items I am disputing are from the free annual report timeframe last year 10/2005.”

It’s now MARCH!!!  My client not only bought numerous FICO reports, but she also pays for the Equifax score monitoring and credit monitoring.  And Equifax has the audicity to first tell my client that the investigation will take 30 BUSINESS days, then 30 - 35 days and now 45 days.

We’ve been disputing with Equifax since November and they REFUSE to correct the reporting and are a constant source of frustration and aggravation, mailing to the wrong address, sending partial dispute results, hanging up on my client and there’s just nobody with half a brain.

There is NOTHING but a SUMMONS that will get a response (Equifax counsel Perling ignored my e-mail about this client) and if you read my posting about my settlement conference with Equifax, you know that Equifax still ignores me.  But at least I hope to make them PAY - I will take this as far as I can, hopefully to the jury.

Next week I’ll send out a press release about the free annual reports.  The Equifax decision to extend the investigation time to 45 days due to a consumer obtaining the free annual report several months earlier makes for a good CLASS ACTION.

Monday, March 13, 2006

The 2/27/06 settlement conference with Target, Cap One and Equifax

Been so busy, almost forgot to post about this event.  Snell & Willmer, the Target attorneys, provided conference rooms in their Phoenix office. 

Capital One was first.

According to their local counsel, they weren’t interested in settling only the remaining claims aside from the order regarding the credit limits, which I will appeal.  So that took only a couple minutes.

Then I talked with Lewis Perling on the phone regarding Equifax.

It was obvious that he had NO idea what my claims are and he hadn’t looked at my discovery requests.  I started by asking for a complete and correct report.  Still don’t have the Cap One limits and my mortgage and auto loan had been prematurely deleted.  Mr. Perling advised that Equifax is NOT required to report anything.  Of course that’s BS.  Apparently he doesn’t know the meaning of “complete” either.  We didn’t discuss it further, he said he’d look into it.

I mentioned that I didn’t know where to begin with my claims, there are so many.  So Mr. Perling suggested to just settle everything for a lump sum.  I told him that I want $100,000, he said he *might* get Equifax to pay me $1,000.  That was the end of those negotiations.

Target claimed that senior counsel Robert Foehl flew in from MN just for this settlement conference.

Target also did not want to settle the remaining claim regarding the adverse action letter aside from the order that I’ll appeal.  But we ended up talking for about an hour.

Attorney Foehl hadn’t been to my websites and didn’t care about anything I do, he was simply not interested.  Bad start!  A good negotiator always wants to know as much as possibly about the opposing parties and their goals.  That’s what I loved about real estate, making deals work.  The idiots think it’s all about money!  There are so many ways to come to an agreement that works for all parties.

Obviously, attorney Foehl is NOT a skilled negotiator and I doubt that he flew to Phoenix for this settlement conference.  He had no interest at all in the issues and in settling anything.  For over 1.5 years I’ve attached my press releases to my filings and made it clear to the Target local counsel Jennifer Dioguardi that this is not about a few bucks for me, but about the issues and changes for the better to benefit all Target account holders.

I explained to Mr. Foehl how the B/L ratio is calculated and how the missing credit limits devastate the FICO scores for people with few or no other accounts and that any time an account appears maxed out it is impacting negatively on FICO scores.

I must have asked him about 15 times why he won’t take 2 minutes to send a quick e-mail to Equifax counsel Perling and ask WHY the credit limits Target claims to report to Equifax are NOT on my and my clients’ Equifax reports.  I got different answers, from “the court ruled that limits are not required” to just a smirk.

If you own a store and you spend many millions to advertise your products and to project a positive image, why would you ignore that many of your customers are suffering serious damages to their credit rating because of that mysteriously disappearing Target Guest card credit limit?

Of course the most logical answer is that the Target customers’ losses are Target’s gains

And that a) they don’t report the limits at all and lied or b) they’re happy that their customers can’t get credit elsewhere and have to pay 23% interest to Target.

Mr. Foehl thinks that the financial system is working very well (yeah, for him, an overpaid lawyer with no conscience!) and that creditors might not want to offer credit to almost anyone (I had told him that I’ve been recommending the Target Guest card to re-establish credit) when they run the risk of getting sued (by people like me).  He apparently feels that people with bad credit ought to shut up and be grateful for any credit regardless of the devastating impact on their credit scores and that the disadvantaged deserve to be exploited.

The conference ended shortly after I pointed out that Target knowingly advertises products online that it is NOT shipping and it did nothing to correct its mistakes and continued the false advertising—despite 7 written customer complaints prominently posted on the Target website.

Mr. Foehl was NOT interested in specifics so that he could finally correct the advertising.

To date, Target has not contacted me about this.  Target is scum.

And, they sent me a settlement offer last week EXCLUDING the order I want to appeal - more on that tomorrow.

Summary:

This was a total waste of time.  Equifax was not at all prepared, Capital One couldn’t have cared less and I don’t know what they’re smoking at Target, but they’re definitely not very bright.  Putting me in one room with a selfcentered arrogant yuppie attorney with no conscience is unlikely to result in a settlement.

Usually these conferences are held by a magistrate judge and that might have been more productive.  I could have just the same stayed at home and talked to the defendants’ lawyers on the phone.  Maybe they cooked this up because they thought I wouldn’t want to drive to Phoenix.  Think again.

Fortunately, the scheduling hearing for my 2003 suit was scheduled that afternoon.  While judge Broomfield always gave me permission to attend by phone, it was good to show up in person.

I talked with MIS (Credit Data Southwest, the former Experian affiliate) attorney John Fry after the hearing.

I had been very upset after MIS had sent the offer for $0 2 years ago with its motion for summary judgment.  And I had actually forgotten that they had sent me a new offer last December, it was nothing to get excited over. 

Mr. Fry is a real nice guy.  He encouraged me to send a counter and I had 5 hours to think about it on my way home from Phoenix.  They sold to Experian in 2003 and I wouldn’t be able to get any current info on credit reporting from them.  We settled last Friday, but with a confidentiality clause, so I can’t say anything else.

I’m sure I learned a lot that day and it was worth the trip to Phoenix.  One of those things you ought to do once in your life.  And as pissed off as I was at MIS over that $0 offer, an attorney’s personality goes a long way.  Most just try to offend me.  I don’t know if it’s because they enjoy my filings or to rack up hours or what - it certainly doesn’t help with settlements when they’re obnoxious.