Consumer complaint received 2022-08-25
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: CA
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Information belongs to someone else

Complaint:
I'm filing this report because I was a victim of identity theft. I came to the US to the state California at the end of XXXX of XXXX as an XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, my social security was used in the state of Arizona  inside of a XXXX XXXX XXXX to open a fraudulent account for an identity thief. The identity thief used my social security to open multiple accounts with XXXX XXXX. They opened a business checking account, a credit card account. I discovered about this issue in XXXX because I never knew that these accounts existed. Since then I've contacted XXXX XXXX and informed them that this is an identity theft case and I am not the holder of these accounts. I have never been to Arizona to open such an account and I did explain this to the XXXX XXXX representatives over the phone. They told me they will take care of the issue and resolve it. However, I recently started to check again and XXXX XXXX have not done anything. The accounts are still reporting. Therefore, I contacted them and informed them of the issue they keep telling me that I am responsible for the accounts. I informed them that these accounts were opened as a result of identity theft in the state of Arizona because I have never been to Arizona. So when I spoke with the representatives of the executive fraud team, I requested the original application that was used in the state of Arizona when opening these accounts. They had difficulties providing the document but they sent it to me and I will attach it in this report. The documents are Record of Application Information and Credit Card Application and Agreement. There is one thing that I did notice is that my signature was forged but not perfectly. I also informed the XXXX XXXX executive fraud team supervisor, however, XXXX XXXX refuses to cooperate and conduct the proper procedures to remove and purge these accounts. I have never associated with XXXX XXXX I informed them with that also. As a matter of fact, I never used a credit card in my entire life. Even now I do not use credit cards. They tried to investigate with me when they saw I my credit report that I had bought vehicles. I told them I buy my vehicle cash and leave 5 to 10 percent for payments so I can build a credit. My transactions are cash and nothing more. I only have a checking account with XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX and that is my only account. Under the Bank Secrecy Act Section 1020.220 of financial crimes enforcement network paragraph ( a ) ( 2 ) ( i ) ( B ) and ( C ) the bank must follow the procedures of verifying the individual before opening any account for a consumer by verifying their name, date of birth, address of residency and check for a valid identification. At XX/XX/XXXX I did not have a valid identification in the State of California yet because I was new to the country and did not know the procedures yet. At that time, I barely had my social security. XXXX XXXX opened and became accomplice in an identity theft when they opened the account in Arizona. Plus, XXXX XXXX have a history of opening fraudulent accounts under consumer names illegally without their consent and authorization. So it is also a big possibility that XXXX XXXX bankers opened the accounts when their stock shares were diluting so they can prevent further collapse of their shares on XXXX XXXX.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation