Consumer complaint received 2022-10-08
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: FL
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: Their investigation did not fix an error on your report

Complaint:
Hello, I am a victim of fraud. Due to the data breach ( which I never received a settlement payment for ) I tried to call and speak with Equifax at the time because I was receiving a lot of spam calls ect I didn't know anything about FCRA, consumer rights and fraud. I didn't realize at the time how this would destroy my credit and ripple off but as an adult I am facing the consequences. 
I tried to resolve this but I could never get verified due to the confirmation process. There were addresses on my report I never lived at. Cars and cards I never had popping up on different reports. Last year I finally was able to get access. I cleaned up as much as I could but I lived my life with out credit and without building my financial portfolio which hurt me as an adult but Due to the delay in verification and making it impossible I was not able todo much of anything. I also was not able to speak to anyone about it as they would always fail me ( verification questions ). So this brings us to the main reason I am filing this complaint. 
I understand it can be difficult dealing with cyber security in a digital world with billions of people and millions of stored information. I am not being anything but fair and understanding about the situation even though I have lost a lot- even been homeless due to poor credit-could not get a apartment. I ended up in a abusive relationship and lost XXXX in XXXX XXXX  all because I needed a place to stay. Due to this major identity issue I had a problem filing my taxes a problem that I still can not fix which has caused me to not be able to finish or go back to college due to funding. This is not a woe is me- story. This is to paint the picture of the XXXX honest truth of how impacted my life was and still is. 
I managed to savage my credit by providing documents to creditors and other companies ect however I sent in documents to Equifax and never heard back years ago. They advised me to resend them I did twice but honestly I couldn't afford a car there was no library for miles and XXXX XXXX was about a XXXX hr walk so after many failed attempts I felt as if I was being treaded like the people who committed the crime. 
To date my credit is XXXX  ONLY on EQUIFAX. I do not have XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  on other reports They do not belong to me. These were found to not be mine. Recently I tried to get a home loan but my score with EQUIFAX is so low I was told to try again in a few months. My score can not be correct- its clearly an error on the back end. It doesn't look like it has been updated in months- sometimes it would be unavailable, but come back unchanged. That is another problem I am having. 
When I disputed these collections ( listed above ) as they are honestly genuinely not mine ( possibly a identity mix up or fraud but NOT MINE ) it would come back as verified. How can that be? I believe Equifax failed to actually investigate these disputes and even mishandled my dispute documents several times. This is the same company that compromised and mishandled my personal information and tried to down play it to the public. 
Your breach has completely changed and altered my life. I was supposed to be done with college making XXXX a year. My credit score would have been higher I should have a house by now. I was cheated out of quality credit cards, travel points and pay ALOT IN XXXX for EVERYTHING I have to finance- due to this error, on the companies part. These Collections were removed from other reports years ago. 
They only became collections because I was unaware of the company as there were fraud address being used which showed on the report for years and it caused the irs to send my information to these people and all my bills as well as apply for cards ect- and I had no clue until magically BOOM a collection would appear. I disputed when i finally was able to get in the account or talk to a rep. 
Currently My credit report states my utilization is over 100 % this is also completely false and damaging to my current situation, as Im still trying to resolve old issues with EQUIFAX. I have had a lot of anxiety about building and securing stability for myself and my kids. I need my credit to be CORRECT. I work hard im honest I pay my bills ON TIME I do NOT over use my cards as i refuse to pay these high APRs. All I am asking is for these collections ( listed above ) to be removed. They are not mine they were never mine they do not belong to me. They were already removed years ago from XXXX and XXXX. Please I have suffered ENOUGH. The ethical thing to do, and the fair thing to do is remove them- THEY ARE NOT MINE, THEY HAVE ALREADY BEEN REMOVED ON OTHER REPORTS. Not removing them would also be a violation of 15 usc 1681e ( b ) and 15 usc 1681s-2 ( a ) ( 1 ) ( a ). I am trying my hardest to get this resolved without any more push back from EQUIFAX. It has been years hopefully This will end here with you. 

Thank you Very much for your time. 
My Credit is personal to me its the difference between struggling and stability. 
Thank you.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation