Identity Theft

Did you receive a message from www.annualcreditreport.com stating, “You already have an account” or “You have already received your free credit report”? If so, you might be a victim of identity theft. I received both of these messages when I tried to obtain my Experian and TransUnion credit reports in August 2006. I had already obtained my Equifax credit report on July 12, 2006. Coincidentally the same day that I obtained my Equifax credit report from www.annualcreditreport.com on July 12, 2006 I became a victim of identity theft. I have spent the past 2 years researching my identity theft and now I have reason to believe that an Equifax employee is behind my identity theft and possibly other identity thefts that involve http://www.annualcreditreport.com/. NOTE: I do not have an ax to grind with Equifax as I have good credit (mid 700's) and I am financially stable. I believe an Equifax employee is the culprit based on the following 14 coincidences that involve my identity theft and Equifax:

COINCIDENCE #1: On 07/12/06, at 2:18 p.m., I obtained my annual free credit report from Equifax via www.annualcreditreport.com (the federally mandated website). My credit report looked perfectly normal. There were no fraudulent accounts, no fraudulent addresses, and no suspicious inquiries. The only discrepancy was that my last name was still listed under my married name. At 5:11 p.m. (3 hours later on this same day), the identity thief called Scana Energy (gas service) and opened an account under my name and SSN for a fraudulent address in Clarkston, GA that’s coincidentally located 11 miles east of Equifax’s Call Dispute Center in Atlanta, GA.

COINCIDENCE #2: On 07/13/06, the next day, the identity thief attempted to re-open a closed account with World Financial Network National Bank (WFNNB)/Victoria's Secret. This account had been closed in Jul 03 (open for less than 30 days) with $0 balance, and it had never been used. Only someone with my credit report would have known about this account. I received Equifax credit reports in Aug 06, Oct 06, Nov 06, and Dec 06 and this inquiry never appeared on any of them. It did not appear until it was deleted on 12/05/06 with 10 other hidden/blocked inquiries. This inquiry was correctly reported by Experian but hidden by Equifax.

COINCIDENCE #3: On 08/11/06, I called Equifax and requested that my last name be changed to my maiden name, thereby generating a credit report that had to be mailed to me. On this same day at 6:14 p.m. and again 7 minutes later at 6:21 p.m., the identity thief submitted a fraudulent change of address from my home address to the aforementioned Clarkston, GA address via www.whitefence.com. NOTE: The identity thief had been in possession of my personal information for a whole month…why did he/she choose this particular day to submit a change of address? I believe it was an attempt to intercept a credit report that was being mailed to me. Only someone working at Equifax would have known that a credit report was being mailed to me. The fraudulent change of address was unsuccessful because unbeknownst to the identity thief and Equifax my mail was being forwarded to a PO Box I had opened in Apr 06.

COINCIDENCE #4: On 08/11/06, the identity thief fraudulently accessed my TransUnion credit file. Changing my address and breaking into my TransUnion credit file…on the same day; it’s almost as if the identity thief “sensed” something on 08/11/06…what could it be? My credit file was accessed 3 times on this day (08/11/06) and one of the entries was completely blank; no explanation of why an Equifax employee had viewed my credit file. I was told that the employee may have “accidentally” punched in the wrong SSN and opened up my file by “accident”…sounds like the perfect cover for identity theft to me.

COINCIDENCE #5: The next day, 08/12/06, the identity thief fraudulently accessed my Experian credit file.

COINCIDENCE #6: The identity thief never broke into my Equifax credit file…gee…I wonder why???

COINCIDENCE #7: After a busy weekend (08/11/06 – 08/13/06) of 14 credit applications, the next day, 08/14/06 (Monday), the identity thief “called” Equifax and disputed 12 hard inquiries and 3 charge accounts (Citi, Dell, and Target). Equifax was able to (1) submit 15 disputes to 15 creditors, (2) receive responses from all 15 creditors, (3) generate 3 separate credit reports based on the responses from the 15 creditors, and (4) get those 3 separate credit reports in the mail to me before 5:00 p.m. All of this was completed in less than 8 hours on the same day of the “phone call” from the identity thief. I also called Equifax on a Monday, 12/04/06, but I only disputed 3 hard inquiries (HSBC Retail, Wal-Mart, and Cingular Wireless). Counting the day of my phone call as a working day, the investigation took 4 working days to complete. The credit report was not generated/mailed until Thursday, 12/07/06. I then called on a Friday, 01/19/07, and disputed only 2 hard inquiries (Comcast and HSN). The investigation took 3 working days to complete. The credit report was not generated/mailed until Tuesday, 01/23/07. Therefore, it took Equifax an average of 3.5 working days to investigate 2-3 disputes for me, but less than 8 hours to investigate 15 disputes (5 times as many disputes, but in 1/3 the time) for the identity thief. Why would an identity thief call a credit bureau?

COINCIDENCE #8: The identity thief only called Equifax. No calls were ever made to TransUnion, Experian, or Innovis…surprise, surprise.

COINCIDENCE #9: On 08/14/06, when Equifax had quickly deleted 12 hard inquiries for the identity thief, 2 of the inquiries had active/open accounts. The Scana Energy inquiry (07/12/06) was deleted (allegedly), yet gas service at the Clarkston, GA address was active until 10/05/06. The Target inquiry (08/11/06) was also deleted (allegedly), yet the fraudulent charge account was active/open until 12/12/06. On 08/25/08 I spoke with the Target Fraud Division; there was no dispute ever received from Equifax disputing the inquiry or the charge account on 08/14/06, or anytime since. So how could Equifax delete the Target inquiry? I don’t believe it was deleted; I believe it was hidden/blocked.

COINCIDENCE #10: On 08/14/06, after quickly deleting or hiding 12 hard inquiries, Equifax generated 3 separate credit reports (allegedly) and then mailed those 3 credit reports to me that same day (allegedly). I never received those 3 credit reports (what a coincidence!), but I have received the other 18 credit reports, 13 letters, and 5 PS Forms 3811 (certified mail receipts) for a total of 36 separate pieces of mail within 24 months (Aug 06 – Aug 08) from Equifax. I have also received 114 separate pieces of mail from 22 other businesses (TransUnion, Dell, Target, etc.) related to my identity theft. As previously stated in Coincidence #3, the change of address by the identity thief was unsuccessful. I find it interesting that I have received every piece of mail I’ve asked for except the credit reports generated by this mysterious identity thief. What are the chances of the post office delivering all of my mail except the 3 credit reports that were generated by the identity thief? That’s a pretty big coincidence.

COINCIDENCE #11: On 06/22/07 I requested a re-mailing of the 3 missing credit reports generated by the identity thief. I gave Equifax the 3 confirmation numbers of the 3 missing credit reports. That same day (06/22/07) Equifax mailed 4 credit reports to me (allegedly). 1 credit report, which I never requested and had absolutely nothing to do with my request, was mailed to my correct address in FL and I did receive it. The 3 credit reports I had specifically requested were mailed (allegedly) to a previous address that was no longer reporting in my credit file because it had been deleted in Jan 07. Equifax had been reporting my correct FL address since Feb 07. The 1 and only address in my Equifax credit file on 06/22/07 was my correct FL address (my credit report dated 06/22/07 clearly shows this). There were zero previous addresses because Equifax had deleted them all in Jan 07. Equifax claims that they only mail credit reports to the current address on file. So why did they mail 4 credit reports on the same day to 2 different addresses in 2 different states when ONLY 1 ADDRESS (my correct FL address) was reporting in my credit file? How could Equifax mail 3 credit reports to an address that didn’t even exist in my credit file on 06/22/07? That’s ridiculous!
The 3 credit reports were never mailed because the Equifax employee hadn’t “created” them yet.

COINCIDENCE #12: On 5 separate occasions (06/22/07, 10/09/07, 02/12/08, 07/21/08, and 08/11/08) I have called Equifax and requested a re-mailing of the 3 credit reports generated by the identity thief on 08/14/06. In Mar 08, after 9 months and 3 requests, I finally received 1 of the credit reports. Wow… it only took the employee 9 months to “create” the first credit report. The 2 credit reports that are still missing coincidentally pertain to Coincidence #9 (Target and Scana Energy). I don’t believe these 2 credit reports even exist. How could Equifax delete the Target inquiry without ever submitting a dispute to Target? On 08/14/06, I believe an Equifax employee hid/blocked all of the inquiries knowing that after 2 years had passed (Aug 08) the inquiries would drop out of the system. All he/she had to do was stall/ignore me until the 2-year anniversary of the inquiries had passed and presto!, the inquiries would automatically drop out of the system. I was told by an Equifax supervisor in Aug 08 that only Equifax supervisors could re-mail missing credit reports. She could not explain why an Equifax supervisor would mail 3 credit reports to an address that was not reporting in my credit file. She could not explain why a supervisor had not mailed the 3 missing credit reports on the 5 different occasions that I had specifically requested them. She could not explain how Equifax was able to delete the Target inquiry on 08/14/06 when Target verified that Equifax never contacted them with a dispute on 08/14/06 or anytime since. She also stated that I would never be able to obtain the 2 missing credit reports because 2 years had already passed. The fact that I had asked for these missing credit reports on 5 different occasions prior to the 2-year anniversary meant nothing.

COINCIDENCE #13: Equifax had no problem re-mailing a credit report that I myself had generated on 01/19/07. I called Equifax on 03/03/08 to request a re-mailing of Confirmation #701*******; it was re-mailed to me that same day, 03/03/08, and I received it. Equifax appears to only have a problem re-mailing credit reports generated by the identity thief.

COINCIDENCE #14: At least 15 fraudulent accounts were opened within 2 months (07/12/06 – 09/14/06) using my name, my SSN, and various Clarkston, GA addresses. NOTE: I froze my credit on 09/19/06 so the identity thief was no longer able to open any more fraudulent accounts. Experian reported 5 fraudulent addresses, 2 fraudulent names, and 1 fraudulent phone number. TransUnion reported 3 fraudulent addresses and 1 fraudulent phone number. Innovis reported 1 fraudulent address and 1 fraudulent phone number. Equifax has NEVER reported 1 single fraudulent address or phone number because they allege that none of the 15 creditors ever reported any Clarkston, GA addresses to them. Equifax reported 4 fraudulent charge accounts (Dell, Citi, HSN, and Target) but claimed no knowledge of the Clarkston, GA addresses associated with those accounts. On 08/25/08 the Target Fraud Division stated that Target had actually reported 2 different Clarkston, GA addresses via monthly reports to the big 3 credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) between 08/11/06 – 12/12/06. On 08/25/08 the Dell Fraud Division stated that they also had reported 1 Clarkston, GA address via monthly reports to the big 3 credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) between 08/07/06-12/04/06. Therefore Equifax lied about submitting a dispute to Target on 08/14/06 and they also lied about not receiving Clarkston, GA addresses from any of the 15 creditors. If they blatantly lied about these 2 things could they also be lying about the alleged phone call from an identity thief on 08/14/06? The Cobb County GA Sheriff’s Department stated that they would not investigate my case any further because even if Equifax is lying about the phone call it would be too difficult, too time consuming, and too expensive for their department to prove that the employee who allegedly received the call is the identity thief…case closed. I understand and respect their decision. I was fully prepared for their response because I’d read plenty of information on the internet about police reports and identity theft, so don’t be too surprised if the same happens to you. That’s why I created this blog. If anyone else has had similar “coincidences” with Equifax and identity theft please let me know. I personally believe there’s a “den of identity thieves” working at Equifax. Maybe if some law enforcement agency or 60 Minutes sees a pattern they might investigate.