Experian's "protection" racket.

[pat_k]

I've long known that the various divisions of Experian Group** are in the bait and switch business. (e.g., Get your free credit report!. . . Not!). What I didn't realize until today is that they've got a great little "protection" racket going too -- while one unit facilitates identify theft another sells "protection."

My "lesson" started when I noted the following charges on my credit card statement:

CIC*Credit Report 877-481-6825 CA Standard Purch24.95
CIC*Triple Advantage 877-481-6825 CA Standard Purch14.95


Before calling I googled and found out that CIC was freecreditreport.com/Experian. When I called I was told that I was being charged for a credit monitoring account on a guy named Henry Fleishman in CA. The rep told me he close the account, but "couldn't" refund the fraudulent charges; I'd have to dispute it through my credit card company.

Although their refusal to refund was unacceptable, I figured I'd deal with it. Basically I was relieved. I had feared that somehow someone had ordered MY credit report and now had my financial life story.

The relief didn't last long. I got angry. To allow a person to set up credit reporting/ monitoring account for one name and charge it somebody else's credit card is a boon to identity thieves everywhere. All they need to do is get a hold of one person's credit card number and another's social security number and presto -- Experian happily hands over their next victim's financial life story. The perpetrator remains untraceable as they charge this one for that ones report. And if they manage to get both an SS#, card# and name for a few people, they can really go to town.

No person who is legitimately seeking to review the status of their credit should have a problem with providing their own credit, debit, or bank account number for identification purposes. If they have a problem with putting the info online, they can do it by mail. If they have no accounts, then they don't have much of a record to "monitor."

The more I thought, the angrier I got. I called back to talk to someone up the line. I didn't expect to get far (and didn't), but I wanted to know how this could happen.

How could they fail to require the name of the subject of the "free" credit report to be the same as the holder of the credit card provided? When dealing with such sensitive information, how could they fail to do the sort of identity verification that services like PayPal require (e.g., charge a card or bank account a dime and require the account holder to enter the code associated with the charge).

And what about Henry Fleishman? (The person the account I got charged for was monitoring.) Perhaps he set up the account for himself, but it is far more likely that Henry is soon to be, or already is, the victim of an identity thief. Or maybe it's just a mistake -- perhaps his account number is a transposition away from mine. Who knows? I've only got a name.

Don't know what I'll do next. Report it to the police? Venting in a post like this can perhaps serve as a general alert to others but that only goes so far. With every regulatory agency to which one might file a complaint gutted by the War Criminals in the White House, I'm at a bit of a loss.

The only thing I do know is that Experian has quite a racket going. One division enables crooks to fraudulently charge your card for somebody else's credit report (or to charge somebody else's credit card for yours.) Sure, the report you get charged for wasn't yours, but you get thinking -- -- what if? What a great way to motivate a person to go looking for "protection." So you come across a division of Experian Group operating under any one of a number of different names that will happily sell you "identity theft protection" -- and you may never realize that your "protector" was responsible for the fraudulent transaction in the first place.

It's greed run rampant. It's not like asking people to provide an account that has their own name on it would interfere with Experian's the bait and switch racket. It would simply remove one means by which identity thieves get sensitive information on their targets.

--------------------------------------------
**Experian Interactive, Experian Consumer Direct, consumerinfo.com, MetaReward, LowerMyBills.com, iPlace, qPlace, PriceGrabber.com, ClassesUSA.com, reecreditreport.com, CIC*Credit Report to name a few.

[msongs]

1. you went to the WRONG PLACE --->

the free credit report site that is actually free and complies with US law for this is

www.annualcreditreport.com

phone [phone]

I do not believe Experian has anything to do with your charges. just the url /experian probably meant you got an experian report (could be wrong, not legal advice here)

the freecreditreport.com that is advertised all over the place is a for profit business

IMO

Msongs

[pat_k]

2. I've never gone near them. . .

They are responsible for unauthorized charges to my credit card that paid for credit reports for a complete stranger.

Despite the fact that the information they are handing over is incredibly sensitive, Experian Interactive (under any one of their many names) apparently has no problem with generating and delivering a report on one party and then charging a second party for it without taking any steps to determine whether or not the second party authorizes the charge.

When I called to find out the origin of the unauthorized charge on my card, it took the rep about a second to verify that the holder of the card they charged (i.e., me) wasn't the customer. It would be effortless to automatically verify that the card charged belongs to the customer, but Experian chooses to enable crooks. The reps I talked to didn't think it was at all out of the ordinary for the subject of the report and the person charged for it to be different people. And they were at a loss to address the concern that that some unknown third party may have in fact set up the account to obtain the customer's credit report for fraudulent purposes.

The bottom line is that a legitimate individual looking to review their own report should never be allowed to charge a third party unless there is some process by which the credit report provider ensures that the party being charged is authorizing the charge.

All in all, Experian provides a wonderful service -- to identity thieves.

With such negligent handling of sensitive information, all a crook needs is the name and SS# for person X and a credit card number for person Y. They can then to Experian (freecreditreport or whatever) and untraceably obtain everything they need to ruin person X's life without raising their suspicions. If person Y notices the charge for Person X's report and contacts Experian, Experian just closes the account and sends the crook an email to notify them it's closed. So what? The crook already got what they needed. (Perhaps they do have processes the reps are unaware of, but when I asked if person whose report was paid for with my card would be contacted by mail or phone I was told that sending an email was the only thing they "could" do. Just as I was told that all they "could" do about my questions and complaints was to give me an address for the Customer Relations Group -- no phone. no name. no nothing. Just a P.O. Box.)

Like racketeers who break shop windows then go looking to collect money to "protect" the victims from such mayhem, Experian offers to sell us "protection" from the identify thieves they are enabling.

[cliffordu]

3. I dumped all my credit cards.

cash.

Nothing but cash.