Consumer complaint received 2018-04-27
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: FL
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Account status incorrect

Complaint:
My name is XXXX XXXX ( SSN XXXX ). After reviewing my credit score on XX/XX/XXXX I  discovered that all three credit bureaus were currently reporting private student loans obtained between 10 and 12 years ago. 
These private student loans went into default when XXXX XXXX refused to extend forbearance onto the loans nearly a decade ago. XXXX XXXX then transferred the loans to a new company, XXXX, even though they are private and not federal loans. XXXX has been reporting these loans on my credit report predominantly as closed, charged off loans. These loans have negatively affected my credit report for 12 years and bear total charge off amounts vastly exceeding the original loan amounts. 
This is because XXXX has fraudulently been extending forbearance without request by the consumer and has been increasing the total loan amount through accumulating interest and using this forbearance as a payment to keep the account current for a longer period, extending the statute of limitations and the date at which reporting falls of the Credit Report. In fact, as the time of my original inquiry, two student loans ( in the amount of {$7500.00} and {$7500.00} respectively ) show as having been paid this very month. In fact, the account history shows that the loan became current, then late, then current again, three separate times in the last three years, even though exactly zero payments have been issued and zero requests for any sort of forbearance are on record or were requested. 
Clearly, no such payments or requests have ever been made. The fraudulent activity on these accounts are illegal and defraud not only the consumer, but the government, who is accepting the charged off amounts as legitimate on tax documents, even though they vastly exceed the proper and legal charge off amount due to the illicit practices of XXXX. 
After reviewing the accounts personally and realizing there are numerous and blatant errors in reporting, I personally contacted XXXX and demanded that the accounts be corrected and removed from my Credit Report by sending individual letters for each specific loan and asking for proof of request for forbearance or payments made toward those accounts to justify their account history, the misrepresented amount owed, and their incorrect reporting timeline. When XXXX received these letters, they responded by ignoring my request for correspondence entirely, and instead, XXXX hired a third-party corporation named XXXX XXXX   to attempt to collect the full amounts for the loans plus accrued interest for 10-12 years. 
I responded via certified mail, challenging the legitimacy of the debt, their history and the loan balances, and demanding validation of the debt as per my rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ( FDCPA ) which prevents companies like XXXX from using abusive, unfair, or deceptive practices in situations like mine. I asked specifically for all documents proving that request for forbearance or payments had been made in my name. Further, I demanded that they remove these accounts from my report as they were inaccurate, outdated and therefore were in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. 
Moreover, when any debt becomes serviced by a debt collections agency, and the debt is challenged, validation of the debt must be provided within 30 days of the original request, unless an extension or special provision is requested as per 809 of the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act. Moreover, having received my letters and responding to them without sending requested validation means that they are now willingly noncompliant and subject to damages of up to {$1000.00} per instance as per FCRA and FTC guidelines. On XX/XX/XXXX, with no response from XXXX or XXXX. I sent another set of letters via certified mail to the three credit bureaus demanding that my credit report be corrected as per rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and accusing XXXX of attempting to skirt the rule of law by trying to sell the debt to a third party when I requested debt validation. I also stated plainly that XXXX was in violation of the FDCPA regulations and was therefore subject to civil penalties and damages in court and that it was now illegal for the Credit Bureaus to report the debt as accurate Despite not responding to my request for validation or complying with consumer protections laws, XXXX did indeed receive my letters, and as a response, they took all charged off loans and changed their status from Closed to Active so that it would adversely affect my credit score. They are now reporting that my open loan balance is {$110000.00} ( Including an added {$43000.00} of accumulated interest for an unspecified time of unsolicited forbearance wherein XXXX fraudulently collected interest to charge off a larger amount ). 
To review, XXXX falsely and illegally placed my accounts in forbearance, extending vastly the statue of limitations and the length of time the loans affect my credit score. When challenged on the fraudulent activity and asked per legal requirements to provide evidence of these fake payments and requests, none was provided, and they attempted to sell the debt quickly to skirt the law. When the collections agency attempted to collect the debt and was challenged, neither the collections agency nor XXXX provided the legally required validation documents. Then, in an attempt to intimidate the consumer ( and to possibly defraud the government of more money ), XXXX attempted to take decade-old charged-off loans and make the accounts active so as to further damage my person and to try to collect additional fees, interest, and tax write offs. 
All of this was done without any sort of bilateral communication, despite clear documentation that they did in fact receive all certified mail and requests as per multiple consumer protections laws and via multiple appropriate channels. I am requesting formal investigation into the practices of XXXX as they violate multiple consumer protections laws and violate my rights under federal protections. Further, I am requesting that XXXX remove these charges from my account as per government mandated statute of limitations and consumer protections laws. 
Thank you for your time, XXXX XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation