Consumer complaint received 2020-06-04
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: CA
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:
I was recently notified by Detective XXXX of the XXXX Police Department that I along with 12 other individuals were victims of identity theft and possibly fraud and burglary after 2 suspects were XXXX  and found in possession of various passports, ID 's, tax returns, credit cards, medical records, check books, car registrations etc. The suspects were taken into XXXX  and XXXX  with XXXX XXXX Identity Theft. Det. XXXX arrived at my house and asked if I knew the two suspects and if I gave either of them permission to have my passport or any other documents. I told the officer that I never heard of the two people and that I never authorized anyone to use any of my personal information. After a brief conversation with officer XXXX, I was finally advised to check my credit and file a financial crime report with the XXXX Police Department. 

In XXXX of XXXX  after reviewing all three of my credit reports I found two accounts that did not belong to me that were obtained by fraudulent means. A couple of days later, I obtained a copy of the XXXX Police Crime Report case number XXXX and a week later I filed a Financial Crime Report with the XXXX Police Department case number XXXX. 

After obtaining the XXXX Police Department crime report and filing my own ID Theft/Financial crimes report, I decided to contacted both creditors listed on my credit reports in an attempt to resolve the fraudulent accounts. I spoke with a gentleman named XXXX at XXXX about the fraudulent credit card and he said that XXXX would conduct an investigation into the matter. That same day, I contacted XXXX XXXX XXXX about a lease for a property that had been obtained fraudulently in both me and my daughters name who is also a victim of the Identity theft case to inform them of the fraud. XXXX redirected me to contact XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  where I spoke with a XXXX XXXX hoping to also resolve the fraudulently obtained lease. My conversation with XXXX XXXX resulted in no help nor assistance from her in moving to resolve the fraud and ended with her hanging the phone up in my face. 

After contacting both collectors/creditors, I decided to file XXXX disputes against both companies with all three credit bureaus. As of today XX/XX/2020 Equifax and Experian have not deleted the fraudulent accounts that have been proven to be fraud by the contact that I had with Detective XXXX ( police report number XXXX ). Not only have they not deleted the information, they claim that both creditors proved that the disputed accounts belong to me. This is impossible as I have never set foot in Georgia nor have I ever applied for or banked with XXXX. I sent all 3 credit bureaus the same packet of very detailed information including my ssn, 2 police reports, a copy of my passport, utility bill, W-2 's, and a statement as to why I was sending the information. Equifax and XXXX  told me that I had to submit these documents in order to place a security freeze on my credit file and I did as they requested in a timely manner. 

As of today XX/XX/2020 and after the dispute process has been completed, XXXX  and Equifax somehow mysteriously verified that 2 fraudulently obtained credit accounts belonged to me and that I now have to start this process over again. I have taken time off work and spent over 24 hours trying to resolve this issue with Equifax and XXXX  and to no avail. After sending me a letter acknowledging receipt of the documents in which the police crime report was heavily redacted due to the other victims, Equifax was requesting that I send in the same documents again informing me that the redacted document could not be used. I contacted Equifax and XXXX to inform them that there was nothing I could do about the redacted information due to there being other victims included in the report and reminded them that I also sent a XXXX Police Department financial crime report XXXX case number XXXX ) that I filed that was not redacted. At any rate, I was sent XXXX of these letters even though I sent what they initially asked for. 

At any rate, I have tried to clear my credit of multiple fraudulent accounts by submitting every single item the XXXXree credit reporting agencies required of me yet, Equifax and XXXX are unwilling to remove any of these fraudulent accounts. This type of action should not be allowed by XXXX  nor Equifax and they should be held accountable and forced to verify the information if they have concerns instead of making it virtually impossible for victims of ID fraud and theft to clear their credit of fraudulent items that appear in their credit file. These are horrible tactics and will do nothing but bring a class action lawsuit against them if they continue to refuse to help victims of identity theft and or fraud. 

This is completely unacceptable.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation