(E) While it is easier for consumers who 
obtain a police report to remove fraudulent in-
formation from their consumer report and pre-
vent it from reappearing in the future, accord-
ing to the Empire Justice Center, safety and 
other noncredit concerns may impact the capac-
ity of a survivor of financial abuse committed 
by a known person to turn to law enforcement 
to get a police report. 
(F) According to the Legal Aid Society in 
New York, domestic abuse survivors, seeking to 
remove adverse information stemming from fi-
nancial abuse by contacting their furnishers di-
rectly, are likely to face skepticism about claims 
of ID theft perpetrated by a partner because of 
an assumption that they are aware of, and may 
have been complicit in, the activity which the 
survivor alleges stems from financial abuse. 
(6) DECEPTIVE AND MISLEADING MARKETING 
PRACTICES.— 
(A) The Consumer Bureau’s February 
2015 report titled ‘‘Consumer Voices on Credit 
Reports and Scores’’ found that some con-
sumers did not obtain a copy of their consumer 
report due to concerns about security or of 
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being trapped into purchasing unwanted prod-
ucts like an additional report or a credit moni-
toring service. 
(B) In January 2017, the Consumer Bu-
reau fined TransUnion and Equifax for decep-
tively marketing credit scores for purchase by 
consumers as the same credit scores typically 
used by lenders to determine creditworthiness 
and for luring consumers into costly subscrip-
tion services that were advertised as ‘‘free’’ or 
‘‘$1’’ that automatically charged recurring fees 
unless cancelled by consumers. The Consumer 
Bureau also found that Equifax was illegally 
advertising its products on webpages that con-
sumers 
accessed 
through 
AnnualCreditReport.com before consumers ob-
tained their free disclosures. Because of these 
troubling practices, TransUnion was ordered to 
pay $13.9 million in restitution to harmed con-
sumers and a civil penalty of $3 million to the 
Consumer Bureau. Equifax was ordered to pay 
more than $3.7 million to affected consumers 
as well as a civil money penalty of $2.5 million 
to the Consumer Bureau. As part of the con-
sent orders, the CRAs are also supposed to 
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change the way that they sell their products to 
consumers. The CRAs must also obtain con-
sumers’ express consent before enrolling them 
into subscription services as well as make it 
easer for consumers to cancel these programs. 
(C) The Consumer Bureau fined the other 
nationwide CRA—Experian—in March 2017 
for deceiving consumers about the use of credit 
scores that it marketed and sold to consumers 
as credit scores that were used by lenders and 
for illegally advertising its products on web 
pages 
that 
consumers 
accessed 
through 
AnnualCreditReport.com before they obtained 
their free annual disclosures. Experian was or-
dered to pay more than $3.7 million in restitu-
tion to harmed consumers and a civil monetary 
penalty of $2.5 million to the Consumer Bu-
reau. 
(D) The Consumer Bureau’s January and 
March 2017 consent orders with the three na-
tionwide CRAs show that these CRAs have en-
ticed consumers into purchasing products and 
services that they may not want or need, in 
some instances by advertising products or serv-
ices ‘‘free’’ that automatically converted into an 
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ongoing subscription service at the regular price 
unless cancelled by the consumer. Although 
these CRAs must now change their deceptive 
marketing practices, codifying these duties is an 
appropriate way to ensure that these companies 
never revert back to such misleading tactics. 
(E) Given the ubiquitous use of consumer 
reports in consumers’ lives and the fact that 
consumers’ participation in the credit reporting 
system is involuntary, CRAs should also 
prioritize providing consumers with the effective 
means to safeguard their personal and financial 
information and improve their credit standing, 
rather than seeking to exploit consumers’ con-
cerns and confusion about credit reporting and 
scoring, to boost their companies’ profits. 
(F) Vulnerable consumers, who have legiti-
mate concerns about the security of their per-
sonal and financial information, deserve clear, 
accurate, and transparent information about 
the credit reporting tools that may be available 
to them, such as fraud alerts and freezes. 
(7) PROTECTIONS FOR CONSUMERS’ CREDIT IN-
FORMATION.— 
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(A) Despite heightened awareness, inci-
dents of ID theft continue to rise. In February 
2015, the FTC reported that ID theft was the 
top consumer complaint that it received for the 
15th consecutive year. As these incidents in-
crease, consumers experience significant finan-
cial loss and emotional distress from the inabil-
ity to safeguard effectively and inexpensively 
their credit information from bad actors. 
(B) According to a Carnegie Mellon study, 
children are 50 times more likely than adults to 
have their identities stolen. Child identities are 
valuable to thieves because most children do not 
have existing files, and their parents may not 
notice fraudulent activity until their child ap-
plies for a student loan, a job, or a credit card. 
As a result, the fraudulent activity of the bad 
actors may go undetected for years. 
(C) Despite the increasing incidents of 
children’s ID theft, parents who want to 
proactively prevent their children from having 
their identity stolen, may not be able to do so. 
Only one of the three nationwide CRAs cur-
rently allows parents from any State to set up 
a freeze for a minor child. At the other two na-
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