But an article about the service appeared Friday in The Washington Post , causing an unanticipated flurry of requests. Between Thursday evening and Friday morning, more than 2,000 people tried to access its Web site, Experian says. About 200 of them actually received credit reports online. Now the company is attempting to contact all of them by phone to find out if they got the correct report.
Consumer groups say the glitch proves the perils of such services.
But Experian says any new system can have problems. It had hoped to roll out the service slowly, so that it could spot weaknesses before a mishap occurred. But as much as I train them, there's always a chance something might go wrong. That doesn't mean we shouldn't drive cars. But many experts say companies shouldn't be disseminating sensitive personal information over the Internet without proper safeguards.