Complaint sub-issue: Received unsolicited financial product or insurance offers after opting out

I was cold called from XXXX XXXX   regarding a mortgage refinance. During the discussion with the loan agent, he stated he was going to pull my credit report. I responded that I did not want my credit report pulled at this time. He then proceeded to ask my date of birth and social security number, which I provided for informational purposes. A few days later I got a credit reporting alert from my credit reporting service that showed a negative impact on my credit rating had occurred due to Credco submitting a new credit inquiry on behalf of XXXX XXXX. I contacted XXXX XXXX and asked why they pulled my credit report without my consent. They said that by giving my date of birth I had given implied consent and would not reverse the inquiry. I then contacted Credco who said I need to request an inquiry deletion letter from XXXX XXXX. I contacted XXXX XXXX again and they said they need to investigate and respond later. When they responded they again refused to provide an inquiry deletion letter and said that I had consented to have my credit run. At no time did I ever give explicit consent to run my credit in fact I explicitly stated that I did not want my credit run. After a second investigation and call back their researcher told me giving my date of birth is the same as giving them my consent and that the only way they would request removal of the inquiry is if their researcher found evidence of fraud. This is a case of the " Fox being in charge of the henhouse '', they investigated them selves and found no fraud, and again refused to provide a deletion of inquiry letter. My credit rating has been negatively impacted and lowered because of this un-consented inquiry and I have tried to resolve this with them. I requested a copy of the recording they referred to in their " investigation '' and they refused to provide it saying it is proprietary information. Their investigator could not quote me giving my consent, I specifically asked him " Did I say yes, go ahead and run my credit or did I say you have my consent to run my credit report ''. He could not find any such statement and said that I did not state that I did not want my credit run, it has now disappeared from the recording that they refuse to provide. XXXX said this inquiry will remain on my official credit report for 2 years before it drops off. It is a " Hard Inquiry ''. XXXX XXXX claims it will only negatively impact my credit for a few months in one statement ( after consecutive months of on time payments on my current mortgage ), then contradicts themselves saying it will remain as a negative for up to a year. I have always made my mortgage payments on time and still have inquiries from almost a year ago when I started mortgage shopping. Now I have 7 inquiries on my record, three of them are from XXXX XXXX, Credco has one shown from XX/XX/XXXX that XXXX denies is there, and there is another from last XX/XX/XXXX. This concerns me because other lenders have repeatedly run inquiries and then call me to discuss refinancing. I have only 2 negative impacts on my credit, the big one being high credit card debt which is why I was considering a cash out equity refinance in the first place, and the second is the high number of inquiries from lenders. All of my other factors are excellent, good or average but my credit rating has dropped from the high 700 's down to low 600 's in a year since I started looking into refinancing. I should note that during that time I have not taken out any new loans, just shopped for rates and terms! I highly recommend that if XXXX XXXX calls you hang up! Do not even talk to them because discussing a loan means implied consent to run your credit in their mind.