Consumer complaint received 2022-02-13
Company: Experian Information Solutions Inc.
State: OH
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a credit reporting company's investigation into an existing problem
Sub-issue: Difficulty submitting a dispute or getting information about a dispute over the phone

Complaint:
The company is Experian. This the worst experience I have ever had dealing with a major company, let alone one of the three major credit bureaus. I have documentation to prove all of this. 

Background : In late XX/XX/2022, while checking my online bank account, I was in shock when I noticed the {$55000.00} dollars illicitly had been transferred or was being in the process of being transferred out of my savings account. I contacted the bank immediately and their fraud unit locked the account immediately. I will say that so far working with the bank 's fraud unit has been great and they are recovering the funds which are being credited back to me. I can provide you with the name of the bank if needed. So, this appears to be under control. 

In this time period since then, there have been at least two attempts to open bank accounts and two attempts to open two credit union accounts across the country in my name using my personal information. From XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX I directly received alert texts from them asking if I was doing this. I responded No and I don't believe the accounts were ever opened. For XXXX XXXX XXXX I received an alert from XXXX. The account was opened and XXXX helped me shut it down. From the other bank I received no alerts but just received a debit card in the mail. I just finished getting the account opened at that bank shut down. They were very helpful. I can provide you the names of the bank and credit unions if needed. 

So, this also appears to be under control. I am surprised though that these financial institutions would open accounts when I had credit freezes on file at each major credit bureau. 

In the meantime, I have spent many hours talking to these institutions and online changing passwords on our accounts, setting fraud alerts at the credit bureaus, setting a bank freeze at XXXX, getting IRS IP Pins etc. for me as well as my wife. Anything and everything we could do to strengthen our Internet security. 

Complaint with Experian : In late XXXX while all this was occurring, I discovered three or more emails from Experian to my email address to someone named XXXXXXX. Experian was welcoming him for setting up an account and asking him to update his passwords etc. Unfortunately, my name is XXXX. I don't believe I ever had an online account with Experian. It was quickly apparent to me that someone somehow had gotten hold of my personal information and opened up an online Experian account in my name. I believe the false opening of this account was instrumental in his or her fraudulent scheme above. 

I thought this should be easy to contact Experian and ask them to conduct a fraud investigation and shut down this account. Was I ever wrong! 

I tried incessantly for several days to contact Experian by phone using a variety of Experian customer service numbers. I never could get past their atrocious voice response system and talk to a real live human being. I mailed documentation by XXXX to their customer service unit in XXXX, Texas and never heard back. I tried to notify them using their online Experian document upload link and it never worked. Finally, I found a customer service email link on their website. I clicked on Contacts at the very bottom of their web page and discovered it. I emailed a request with documentation to shut down the account and conduct a fraud investigation. Two days later I received an email back addressed to XXXXXXX,. the name of the person who falsely opened up the Experian account telling him it has been shut down. Thank God for that. Unbelievably, the reply back phone number Experian provided in their email goes to the same voice system you can't get past to talk to a human being, and the email address Experian provided came back as unavailable and undeliverable.

In every correspondence with Experian, I have provided my name, address, phone, and email. I have asked to be contacted back by a real live human being at Experian either by phone or email. In three weeks now I never have received anything back. I'm not certain any real live human beings work at Experian.

I believe Experian is totally incompetent. They are one of the major credit bureaus. One of their functions should be to help protect people from identity theft and fraud. Yet when their own system is hacked, it is virtually impossible to reach them and take corrective action. I now have no faith in them that if they can't handle a problem like this expeditiously, then can they handle credit information and ratings properly

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief