Consumer complaint received 2019-06-12
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report — Reporting company used your report improperly
Company: Early Warning Services, LLC (NY)

Complaint:
Rather than investigating results internally, Early Warning Services improperly uses consumer information by sending any disputes consumers have directly to financial institutions that don't have any authorization to remove fraudulent, harmful and inaccurate info, as reported by Early Warnings Services. I have compiled notes on phone calls with Early Warning Services where employees admitted that my data produced by Early Warning Services shouldn't have sent to all banks listed on the report. EWS should have corrected the comprehensive consumer report and remove the inaccurate information displayed. For example, XXXX XXXX received my entire comprehensive report from Early Warnings Services. A XXXX XXXX senior fraud representative from their corporate office called me asking why I insisted on having them look at the information on file that has nothing to do with XXXX XXXX. EWS considers itself a consumer reporting agency, and as such, must abide by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ( FDCPA ) standards. EWS does not follow any prescribed rules issued as guidance and regulation from the FTC. 
Sending out bank data to financial institutions about all disputes published by EWS is an actionable offense. EWS can be subject to numerous fines because they did violate the very rules they claim to follow on their website. EWS is sending my entire report to banks/alternative lending & financial institutions that have nothing to do with a particular dispute, or the financial institution receives my dispute, along with disputes issued with other banks that have nothing to do with them. 

- Discontinue sending the disputed info disputed for one bank, to all banks listed on the report that is not required nor should have access to said data ( Employees have stated at EWS ; this action should not have taken place ). 

- I have sent numerous disputes to EWS and confirmed with employees that EWS created errors. Mistakes such as dual, triple, and reporting the same account four to five times, with a different variation of corresponding account number and routing number. There are numerous instances where I have one account with a particular bank, yet EWS reports five, even six versions of the same account.

- Early Warning Services will claim that they receive information reflected on the report from banks. However, after contacting the financial institutions that I conduct business with, they did not issue the information displayed on the EWS reports because the account and routing numbers don't exist in their system, nor are they associated with my name. As such, EWS needs to take accountability and remove the information that I have been disputing for years. 

- EWS reps, for years, have told me this would removals would occur and never took place, regardless of disputing info in writing via traditional mail, fax and email. 

- I am not the only individual to go through this. According to the complaint data via CFPB, under the topic " Improper use of your report '' and sub-issue " reporting company used your report improperly '' it is within the top ten most problematic issues consumers have with EWS. I will be sure to continue disputing this issue with Early Warning Services, via CFPB within this particular sub-topic until it becomes the most popular sub-issue within the topics available for selection. This action will not only create more awareness for consumers to understand how their data is being mishandled but also prove that EWS is modifying disputed information to remain on file with on the EWS database illicitly. 

- FTC/CFPB should punish EWS for providing the entirety of a consumer report to all banks listed on file with the customer on the EWS database, even if the customer does not have an account with them. 

- EWS refuses to dispute with a specific financial institution, thus exposing consumer data ripe for using indiscriminately. EWS does not read through the entirety of complaints and sends complaints in bulk to all banks. Posting the entire comprehensive report ( EWS most detailed form, my comprehensive was 77 pages ) to all banks listed on file, contrasts with traditional credit reporting agencies such as XXXX, and XXXX, where if you dispute information to a particular entity/financial institution, the single dispute for a specific issue is received by them, and not the entirety of the report. 

- I want to reiterate that my comprehensive report was over seventy pages long and over twenty-five financial institutions, including  banks, credit unions, alternative lending corporations all contacted me asking why they received disputes regarding banks they have nothing to do with the matter. On top of this, my data like social security number, birth date, even transactions, and checks were recorded by EWS to companies that have nothing to do with a particular dispute. Executive members at XXXX XXXX, which is part of the consortium of financial institutions that fund EWS, were very concerned that my data about other banks/financial institutions and current disputes were getting sent to them. There were concerns regarding data that sent to other commercial entities that have no business at looking at my info, listed on the EWS comprehensive consumer report because EWS sent this information. 

- For clarity, my situation has nothing to do with getting rejected for application to a bank. Specifically, this has to do with disputing info direct to EWS, and they are not being held accountable. This fact will change. Now that EWS is running Zelle, and more American Consumers become aware of the fraudulent practices Early Warning Carries out ; they will have no choice but to abide by the law. 

- For comparison, Early Warning Services is similar to a government-sponsored entity like a XXXX  XXXX, or XXXX XXXX. Unfortunately for Early Warning Services, the US Government does not sponsor them and does not wield an iota of power. They are beholden to the very sponsors that fund them ; the largest banks in The United States. Consistent instances of incompetence, fraud, and negligence will undergo investigation ; as complaints continue to mount against them, action will be taken to either dismantle the organization or remove every last incompetent employee ( all current employees at EWS ) they have proven useless at carrying out. EWS is abusing their " sponsorship '' via largest banks in the United States and attempting to leverage that influence over consumers by not following standards set forth by the fair credit reporting act. 

- EWS will abide by my requests sent via standard mail, fax, email, and now via CFPB.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation