Consumer complaint received 2018-06-03
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: NC
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report
Sub-issue: Credit inquiries on your report that you don't recognize

Complaint:
I recently discovered multiple hard inquiries on my Equifax credit report that I do not recognize & did not give authorization for the hard inquires to be pulled from my credit. I sent a letter via certified mail to Equifax that was delivered on XX/XX/XXXX ( with a receipt confirmation ) and faxed a copy to Equifax with a confirmation the fax went through, stating that I did not authorize anyone employed by the listed companies to make any inquiry and view my credit report. In addition to informing them that this is a violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act Section 1681b ( c ) and a serious breach of my privacy rights. I asked that they please validate this information with these companies and provide me with copies of any documentation associated with these accounts bearing my signature, authorizing an inquiry. Furthermore, in the absence of any such documentation bearing my signature, I formally requested that these fraudulent inquiries be immediately deleted from my credit file that they maintain under my Social Security number. 

I also made a note that they had 30 days to complete this investigation, as per the Fair Credit Reporting Act section 611. I then followed up with a phone call to dispute and the customer service representative for Equifax refused to remove inquires, however she claimed that she marked them " unauthorized ''? - However, no confirmation of her statement/claim that she actually did was provided to me. 

After 30 days from Equifax receiving my initial certified letter, I sent a second certified letter request removal of inquiries & stating that according to section 604 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a credit report may only be acquired for a permissible purpose & it states those permissible purposes as : a ) firm offer of credit b ) insurance c ) employment or d ) a court order. The credit inquiries that I listed out in my letter are related to none of the aforementioned permissible purposes & were not authorized or given permission to access/pull my credit. 

I, once again, requested that Equifax remove these inquiries from my credit report immediately or provide written signed authorization by me ( within 30 days ), granting these companies/creditors authorization to pull my credit report or permissible purpose for which the credit inquires occurred without my knowledge, in addition I enclosed a copy of my passport as proof of identity. 

I have attached both certified letters that I sent to Equifax ( the first one was faxed as well ), along with the certified confirmation receipt of each delivery. I also included the hard inquires that are still listed on my Equifax report as of XX/XX/XXXX- showing that Equifax as yet to remove the inquires despite my multiple requests to remove from my report, hours spent disputing over the phone, & time and money used for certified mail & fax to ensure delivery. The requested validation of each inquiry was never provided for me to include in my complaint. Equifax continues to just ignore my legal rights as a consumer & continues to report inaccuracies on my credit report hindering my credit worthiness.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation