Consumer complaint received 2023-10-22
Company: Affirm Holdings, Inc
State: OH
Product: Payday loan, title loan, personal loan, or advance loan
Sub-product: Installment loan
Issue: Getting the loan

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2023, I attempted to purchase a phone through an online vendor with installment financing offered through Affirm. 

When enrolling with the service via my social security number, I was prompted that I already had an account and that a reset code had been sent via SMS. It showed the last 4 digits of the number, which were not my own. 

I then selected the " This is not my phone number '' option, which prompted an email to be sent. It showed the first letter of the email address as well as the domain, indicating an email address which was not mine. 

I contacted Affirm, laying out my findings, and was told there was no direct resolution for my SSN being enrolled in an account without my knowledge as I, personally, didn't have an account to recover. The fact that they report delinquency to credit bureaus should have made clear why it is a problem for someone else to use my SSN on an account that's not mine. 

Following up, I submitted a fraud report through their online ticket with the same details. This was done on XX/XX/2023. 

In the meantime, I used the email domain from the prior reset on-screen dialog ( which belonged to a paving company in the same state ) to make contact with the company, who with the first initial of the name from that email address as well as the last 4 numbers of the phone number ( both viewable from Affirm during the attempted account recovery, as mentioned ) determined who had made the account. That individual reached out to me directly, and we determined the issue was that our SSNs vary by one digit. They simply made a typo when originating their account several years ago.

The individual reached out to Affirm customer service, requesting they change the SSN on his account because of the typo on that person 's part. Affirm gave a ticket number to them and no other information before closing the call. That individual provided me their ticket number for reference, and I gave them my ticket number. 

Affirm emailed me the next day, XX/XX/2023, stating that since it was a case of potential identity theft, they required I call for assistance and not utilize email communication. 

I called Affirm on XX/XX/2023 referencing my ticket number, and they insisted that as it was determined to not be fraud but an inadvertent error by the other party, I was not directly entitled to any assistance. They also informed me that the other person 's account would not be resolved with the correct SSN for approximately 10-20 business days, and only after that point would I potentially be able to create an account and use their services.

To both myself and the other person, with whom I've communicated a fair bit now, this is unacceptable. The other person mistyped one digit on their SSN but still provided their name and address during sign-up. Before extending reportable credit to the individual, Affirm did not reference the SSN to the name or any other identifying information. This means that any person can type in a random string of 9 digits that may be someone else 's SSN, and will be approved for credit access against another unwilling person 's identity.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation