Some Dirty Facts on the Credit Bureaus
The old credit bureaus; now there’s something you associate with words like: honorable, integrity, safe, organized, basically looking out for the average Joe...Oh, wait a minute, that’s nowhere close!
The Bureaus, specifically Equifax, first entered the scene in 1899. They have operations in forty countries and have annual revenues in the multiple billions; all while servicing a billion individual files. Experian is the only one based overseas, in Dublin, Ireland.
After 60 years in business Equifax was continuously being shaken by scandals and it was eventually revealed that it was running a cash-incentive program to reward employees for uncovering negative information about consumers. The good news that came out of this unethical scenario was the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). It was created to provide a layer of protection for the consumer. This is still the same law that we operate under, and uphold to the nth degree, to provide our clients with the service they deserve.
Okay, so there are some shenanigans, but at least the bureaus protect our information right? Not if you asked Hieu Minh Ngo which, incidentally, is hard to do as he is currently behind bars as of July 2015 in Vietnam for stealing 200 million identities of American Citizens. This crime was only able to occur because Experian’s subsidiary and data aggregator "Court Ventures" sold Mr. Ngo personally identifiable information. Then Mr. Ngo resold the information through identity-fraud-enabling websites - like Findget.me - where you can purchase, SSN, DOB, DL, bank-account information, even mother’s maiden names and passwords. "Thanks Experian, we love you too!"
Then you have Transunion whose number 1 complaint is suckering customers into a bad version of a credit report & score for $1; only then to be automatically charged $17.95 a month because they entered into a microscopic contract where you need a telescope to see the fine print
Comments(0)