Consumer complaint received 2022-09-27
Company: Credit Systems International, Inc.
State: NJ
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt was result of identity theft

Complaint:
I check my credit score on a daily basis and discovered that I have debt collections under my identity that I was not aware of until now. On XX/XX/2022, I logged into my XXXX XXXX account and discovered two collections on my record for the energy company XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX On the same day, XX/XX/2022, I called XXXX XXXX XXXX, and XXXX to file disputes on both collections since I have never opened any accounts with these two energy companies. As a result, I received results in the mail for XXXX XXXX XXXX that stated : " Outcome : Deleted- This item was removed from your credit report '', however, I am still awaiting the results for XXXX XXXX since the results only stated : " Outcome : Verified and Updated - The information you disputed has been verified as accurate : however, information unrelated to your dispute has been updated. '' Finding these two collections have caused me to constantly check my credit score in fear that more fraudulent charges may appear under my record as a result of identity theft. On XX/XX/2022, I logged into my XXXX XXXX account and discovered a debt collection from Credit Systems International, which stated I owed {$850.00} from the company XXXX XXXX XXXX. After learning about this, I contacted all three credit bureaus to inform them about the identity theft that had taken place under my identity. I contacted XXXX first and was surprised to learn that two XXXXXXXX XXXX addresses appeared on my credit report. It is surprising since I have never resided or visited XXXX and have been a XXXX XXXX resident all of my life. I asked for the two XXXX XXXX addresses and they provided me with : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. Again, I am not familiar with these addresses and have no affiliation to XXXX since I have lived in XXXX XXXX all of my life. I immediately asked XXXX to put a credit freeze to stop the identity thieves from continuing to open more accounts under my identity. XXXX was able to assist me in filing a dispute and filed another dispute to remove these XXXXXXXX XXXX addresses from my record. After informing XXXX of my identity theft issue, I contacted XXXX and XXXX next to place a credit freeze on my accounts. On XX/XX/2022, I received a letter from XXXX with the results from my dispute. I was devastated to find the results stating : " The information you disputed has been verified as accurate, however, information unrelated to your dispute has been updated. The results are : WE VERIFIED THAT THIS ITEM BELONGS TO YOU. '' Today, XX/XX/2022, I called XXXX and spoke with a customer service representative, XXXX, to request a description of how the reinvestigation was conducted and was advised to file a complaint with the FTC and my local police station to report identity theft since the results of their investigation was not in my favor. This whole process has honestly been horrifying with the amount of stress it is causing on my mental health and having to continuously file dispute after dispute. I went on to ask how the Texas addresses that recently appeared on my record were not enough to justify that these collections did not belong to me since the addresses linked to these accounts were all based in XXXX and I am a resident of XXXX XXXX XXXX stated that when they removed the XXXX  addresses were removed from my record that they no longer appear on their end when pulling up my record. I could not believe it when I heard this since those addresses should have served as crucial information when verifying my identity and the state I reside in, which is XXXX XXXX not XXXX. After speaking with XXXX, I called the collection agency, Credit Systems International, and spoke with the customer service representative, XXXX XXXX, and informed them about myself being a victim of identity theft. She filed a dispute and informed me about the charges that were in collections and I learned that two more charges have appeared now. First, there was a collection for XXXX XXXX and XXXX collections appeared for XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX. XXXX XXXX is in collection for {$850.00}, XXXX XXXX is in collection for {$490.00}, and XXXX XXXX is in collection for {$18.00}, which were amounts all provided by XXXX XXXX from Credit Systems International. I asked what addresses were linked to these account and all have come back as XXXX  addresses ( which I can provide ). She informed me that all of these accounts were from the months of XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX. Today, XX/XX/2022, I am filing for identity theft with FTC to find justice as an identity theft victim.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation