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Experian - countless violations

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Proof that Experian ILLEGALLY sells consumer credit data for less than $1

Today I got some junk mail from IMC List Services.

From http://www.imclistservices.com/listsvcs/:

Since all successful campaigns start with good data, IMC List Services provides what is considered to be the best data available. Our Experian relationship enables us to offer Trigger Data, Advanced Select Prescreen Data and much more by using their repository. We are able to offer all of this data with no long term contracts or setup fees. Even a small office can now “run with the big dogs” by having access to the most sophisticated and responsive data on the market.

From http://www.imclistservices.com/listsvcs/trigger.html :

How many of your prospects would turn into funded loans if you knew before talking to them that they met this criteria!Within the last 24-36 hours the prospect had one of these events occur:

1. Mortgage inquiry
2. HELOC inquiry
3. 30 days late on current mortgage
4. Over the limit on a credit card
5. Bank or credit card inquiry

From http://www.imclistservices.com/listsvcs/Select.html :

Proven over the years Experian’s Advance Select credit and demographic database can deliver qualified and interested borrower’s for your loan officers to close. There are over one hundred criteria to select from and the actual Experian credit score appears on the lead. Typical criteria selects include:Homeowner has credit score of 525 or higher

Homeowner has $10,000 in revolving debt

$75,000 minimum mortgage balance

Mortgage seasoned at least 1 year

View a sample “lead”

The FCRA allows creditors to obtain this info for a FIRM offer of credit to consumers who did NOT opt out of promotional offers.  This has NOTHING whatsoever to do with a firm offer of credit: 

Experian is selling LEADS.

They don’t even pretend anymore that they comply with the FCRA, they feel so safe in our corrupt system.  An offer to extend credit is not mentioned ANYWHERE on this site.

The bought and paid for Congress removed the private right to sue for these FCRA violations with the FACT Act and the corrupt regulators who are now the sole enforcers do NOTHING to enforce the FCRA.

Do I need to point out that the LOW SCORERS are targeted?

People with financial problems are the banksters’ most profitable customers.  That’s why Experian does whatever it can to ensure that the credit reports contain as much false data as possible.

If any readers have access to more info (is IMC an Experian company?) and especially PRICING, please post a comment or contact me privately.

UPDATE:

I had a closer look at the bizarre e-mail, almost everything is in “strike-out” and it’s hard to read.  The leads are sold for “as little as $1” and apparently they are RESELLING the credit data.

Each month, we ask Experian to monitor all of the people in a given region who fit all of the criteria above. Once monitored, we then ask them to immediately deliver any people who have had a mortgage inquiry.

We pay so you don’t have to

We pay extra so you can get trigger records faster than most
We pay more for the appended phone search to help improve your chances of contacting them
We scrub all records against the Federal & State DNC lists.
We challenge you to compare our trigger data and price (as low as $1) with anyone else in the m arketplace.

So they buy the data from Experian, scrub it and then sell the leads to ANYONE who wants to buy.  Just WONDERFUL!

Here is the junk mail, apparently sent by a very low budget spammer:  http://creditsuit.org/images/uploads/2-14-07--IMC-junkmail.pdf

This is so illegal.  I’m sending this URL to Experian’s attorney Marc Carlson with Jones Day at and Michael McCaughan at for comments.  Mr. McCaughan is the sole contact for the IMC domain registration.

And if I don’t get a satisfactory response, I’ll post this issue at http://creditlegislation.org/ and I’ll send my complaint to the FTC.  Not because they’ll do anything, but to be able to DOCUMENT their corruption when I contact legislators.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Reader mail: Can’t get Experian report - need attorney address

Dear Christine,

Thank you so much for what you have posted regarding the credit nightmare you had with Experian.

Currently, I am going through a similar ordeal, as I am the victim of credit fraud. I keep trying to get a copy of my Experian credit report but reach dead ends such as having to have a credit card to get a free copy of the report, and their automated telephone system malfunctioned, and it’s impossible to reach a live person to get things straightened out.  They make it as difficult on a person as possible, and my blood is boiling.

I was wondering whether you might have e-mail addresses and phone numbers for their attorneys, so I can cut through all of this red tape?  You mentioned a Marc Carlson, and I can’t find an e-mail address for him online.  Do you know which law firm he is with?

A friend of mine recently sued Equifax successfully for privacy violations, and he gave me Equifax’s attorney’s e-mail address, and I got action fast through that route.

I am so sorry you had to go through all of this.  These outfits need to be stopped.  Our local TV station is doing a feature tonight on how our Utah government is giving away our identities.  I plan to record it.

Thanks in advance,

...

That’s a very good idea, contacting their OUTSIDE attorneys directly.  The CRAs have to PAY those law firms.  I expect them to direct the attorneys to IGNORE these e-mails if too many consumers start going this route. 

But, it can’t hurt to try:

Marc S. Carlson
Jones Day
3 Park Plaza, Suite 1100
Irvine, California 92614
Telephone: (949) 553-7524
Fax: (949) 553-7539

Please let me know what happens.  And of course e-mails provide GREAT documentation when you have to sue and you’ve tried to resolve the issues with their attorneys.

I am SO tired of the CRAs and their blatant disregard of the FCRA.  They freely give your credit report to just about ANYONE willing to pay for it, but refuse to provide the consumer disclosures.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Experian idiotic response to FACTUAL “duplicate account” dispute - REFUSED to investigate

A client has a paid utility collection reported TWICE on his Experian report:

The dispute:

“1) [collector] [account number] and [account number] appear to be reported in duplicate. I had only ONE utility account and as you can see, all the dates are identical.

The Experian investigation result:

“The creditor is reporting more than one account number:  therefore each account will appear on your personal credit report.  You may want to contact the credit grantor if you have more questions.”

Experian apparently did NOT forward this factual dispute to the utility company.  And realistically, they shouldn’t even have to get the creditor’s investigation result to delete one of the accounts because it’s so OBVIOUS that the accounts are duplicates.  How could you have TWO accounts with almost identical data from a utility?

I hope my client sues.

Not being able to fax everything to a competent FCRA attorney to file the suit next week is the most frustrating part of my job.  Even if Experian immediately deleted the duplicate account after being served, they’d still be out at least $5K to my client and his attorney. 

And if all consumers with these legitimate claims sued, it would soon be more cost effective for Experian to comply with the FCRA than to blatantly disregard consumers’ rights to save on investigation related expenses and for the purpose of lowering consumers’ credit rating and making the credit reports more valuable to creditors because they can charge higher rates.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Experian alerted to balance higher than limit—then REFUSED balance dispute

Here is the alert I received a couple nights ago:

Potentially Negative Information

An item is “potentially negative” when a creditor reports that you have not met the terms of your agreement with them, which may include late
payments, accounts that have been charged off, accounts sent to collection, bankruptcies, liens, judgments, etc.
Alert Date Business Name Balance Date Balance Amount Status Date Payment Status

1/12/2007 TARGET NB ---- ---- ---- Bank Card / Credit Card Over Credit Limit

The saved page:
1-12-07-Experian-alert-over-limit.pdf

Expecting more aggravation, I couldn’t even get myself to look at it until yesterday and I figured it was about the Target account.  The Napster recurring $10 payment was declined a few days ago and I had quickly made the minimum payment.  The interest put me over the limit by $4.

Here is how Experian reports the account:

1-13-07-Experian-Target-over-limit-pub.pdf

NOTE:  Have a close look at this file if you are currently subscribing to Experian’s CreditExpert credit monitoring. 

Most subscribers do NOT know that they’re missing about half data unless they go to submit an online dispute and click on PRINT YOUR REPORT to get the FULL report.

Experian reports the BALANCES for the last 15 months, the so important Date of Status, the scheduled deletion date for closed and derog accounts, previous investigation results and all kinds of info NOT on the report you get as the CreditExpert “full report.”

So, I went to dispute the balance and Experian promptly REFUSED my dispute:

Monday, December 04, 2006

Fair Isaac reports devastating late payments NOT reported on the Experian consumer disclosures

The reporting of an OLD chargeoff by Experian and by Fair Isaac:

The Experian late payments only show up on the myFICO reports

I’ve posted about this problems several times, but it seems like many people just don’t understand what to look for.

Experian is fully aware that when a creditor reports a chargeoff AGAIN, FICO scores (required for most mortgages) apparently interpret this as a 90+ day delinquency.  An account can be charged off only ONCE. 

Since most of my clients don’t have a lot of extra money, I don’t normally look at the bureau reports and I just have them dispute those incorrect lates. 

Experian USUALLY corrects the reporting upon dispute:

Capital One—please delete all late payments after the account was charged off in 2001

While an old chargeoff would lower scores for most reports only 5 or 10 points, if at all, those INCORRECT RECENT major late payments can lower scores over 50 points.

Of course an account can NOT be late after it was charged off as no statements are sent and there are no due dates.

Experian is fully aware of this problem, I asked Kimberly Hughes about it at the depo in Dallas in June.  She pretended not to know, but she obviously has known since then.

Experian has received the disputes from my clients and deleted those lates.  Experian did NOT fix whatever is causing this problem.

Once you understand how much more PROFITABLE the low scorers are for CRAs, you’ll understand WHY Experian and Fair Isaac are maliciously doing whatever they can to lower scores.

If I had the money ($5,000 should be plenty to pay for court reporters and travel expenses), I could depose Fair Isaac.

I could find out WHY this is happening.

In combination with my publications, I could make them FIX whatever causes the problem. 

Unfortunately, I’m broke.  And all these wealthy liberals pretending to be so concerned with helping the disadvantaged do NOTHING whatsoever to deal with the many credit issues.

Maybe we’ll see another fight over the pot of gold by the “consumer attorneys” as with the credit limits—in five years.