Consumer complaint received 2022-09-28
Company: Experian Information Solutions Inc.
State: TX
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:
On XX/XX/26 I received an email from Experian stating that my account had recently been updated, and that my email, address and phone number had been changed. 

Since I do not have and do not want to have an Experian account, and because I know that this company has been involved in data breaches in the past, I wanted to ensure that this account was NOT associated with me or any of my information. 

I was not able to login to the website or reset my password because I did not set up the account and do not know the answers to the security questions. Thus, I called their customer support line. 

The customer support line requires you to enter your SSN, DOB and other personally identifiable information ( PII ) in order to access any further information. As I did not want to provide this information to Experian, a company that has experienced recent massive data breaches, I attempted to navigate their automated phone tree to an agent. 

NONE of the options available in their menu lead to a live human agent. The only way I was able to finally get in touch with a person was by saying " Cancel account '' several times. This was a very frustrating process that required three separate calls and about 30 minutes of trying. 

After finally reaching an agent, they once again requested sensitive PII- not only my DOB and SSN, but my address, zipcode and middle name. The agent refused to provide any service or response without this information. 

I was transfered 4 times to different parts of Experian. Each agent again requested the same information. 

I explained that since I DID NOT HAVE A REAL ACCOUNT, this information would not be useful to the agent. I offered the account ID and email address associated with the ( POTENTIALLY FRAUDULENT ) account in my name, but the agent refused to respond or look up the account. 

Out of frustration, I finally gave in and gave my info to the agent. 

OF COURSE, my details did not match the account in question! Since SOMEONE ELSE set up the account with possibly FRAUDULENT DETAILS. 

( The agent did find an INACTIVE account -- a DIFFERENT account than the one in question -- that had never been used. This was likely set up by some third party at some point in response to a data breach. This is NOT the account I am concerned with, as it is INACTIVE and not being accessed. ) After speaking with three agents, I was sent to the fraud department. The agent repeatedly told me that he was not an expert in dealing with this type of complaint. 

He again demanded that I hand over my sensitive PII in order for him to look up the account. He was able to once again confirm that the FRAUDULENT ACCOUNT did not match my details even though it has my name and email address associated with it. 

UNBELIEVABLY, it was at this point that the agent recommended that to resolve my concerns, I should *CREATE A NEW ACCOUNT* and enter all of my sensitive PII -- the exact information I was trying to ensure is NOT in Experian 's database. Why would I do this? Because, the agent said, I would then be able to *MERGE THE OTHER ACCOUNT* and effectively TAKE OVER the account that I did not set up. 

I explained to the agent that this was a PERFECT RECIPE for account hijacking and that I absolutely refused to create an account in order to cancel an account I didn't set up myself. 

Now I am stuck with a potentially fraudulent account associated with my name and email address in Experian 's database that I can not access. It can only just hope that WHOEVER IT IS who does have access to this account did so in error and not with malicious intent. 

Experian 's customer support line provided completely inadequate response to my concerns, and was able to do absolutely nothing to address my concerns. 

In fact, their recommended response is a near criminal suggestion to socially engineer my way into taking over an account that... potentially belongs to a real person who happens to share my name. Or a criminal! Who knows!!! Certainly, NOT EXPERIAN.

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