Consumer complaint received 2025-12-21 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report — Public record information inaccurate
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: NJ

Complaint narrative:
I mailed the experian, transunion and equifax to remove the bankruptcy that is currently showing up on my credit report due to the fact that they did not get consent from me nor any 3rd party. Only XXXX XXXX and XXXX  stores such data and neither of them did i give consent to disclose such information. further more the courts do not furnish data to the credit agencys. My federal rights are being violated by having such data appear on my credit report. the credit agencys are getting this unconsented data from a 3rd party and not directly from the creditor themselves which is the court thus circumventing the FCRA law. below is the letter i sent to the credit agencys.

I am writing to formally dispute and challenge the inclusion of bankruptcy or other court-related public record information appearing on my consumer credit report. This letter serves as a notice of non-consent, a demand for validation, and a request for immediate correction pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act ( 15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq. ).

It has come to my attention that your agency has intentionally reported public record dataspecifically bankruptcy-related informationobtained from third-party sources such as XXXX, XXXX, or similar data aggregators. I categorically dispute both the accuracy and the permissibility of this reporting. 

Lack of Consent and Impermissible Purpose At no point did I grant written or implied consent authorizing XXXX, XXXX, or any other third-party vendor to collect, resell, furnish, or disclose my court-related data to consumer reporting agencies for credit reporting purposes. The use of such third-party sources does not establish a permissible purpose under 15 U.S.C. 1681b, nor does it override the consumers rights under the FCRA.

No Direct Furnisher Relationship The court itselfthe alleged original source and creditor of recorddoes not report to consumer reporting agencies, does not enter into data-furnishing agreements with them, and does not authorize the resale of court filings for consumer credit profiling. As such, there is no valid creditor-furnisher relationship supporting the presence of this data on my consumer report.

Failure to Meet FCRA Accuracy and Verification Standards Under 15 U.S.C. 1681e ( b ), consumer reporting agencies are required to follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy. Reliance on third-party data brokers who merely scrape or aggregate public databaseswithout firsthand knowledge, contractual authority, or direct verification from the sourcefails to meet this statutory standard.

Additionally, under 15 U.S.C. 1681i, upon dispute, you are required to conduct a reasonable reinvestigation. Merely confirming the data with the same third-party vendor that supplied it does not constitute lawful or independent verification.

Public Availability Does Not Equal Credit Report Eligibility The mere fact that information may be publicly accessible does not automatically make it permissible for inclusion in a consumer credit report. The FCRA distinguishes between public availability and lawful consumer reporting. Information must be accurate, verifiable, furnished by an authorized source, and reported for a permissible purposeall of which are absent here.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation