Fraud Alerts w/ Experian: A Cautionary Tale
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Posted by jeje (12.228.113.159) on July 14, 2002 at 02:07:17:
I recently called up Experian (I know it was a poor decision) to clear up some terrible misspellings of my name and horrible addresses that were never mine or so badly misspelled, it couldn't have been me who submitted it. Anyhow... As I was talking to the rep and having her delete this melee of names and addresses, I mentioned that I'd had a problem with mail theft. The rep immediately said, "If what you've told me is the result of fraud, you need to speak with the fraud department and I have to erase everything I've done. Do you want to do that?" I said, "Yes." (Like an ass.) I thought it would be the best thing, because my mail *has* been stolen and there *were* funky addresses and bad spellings of my name. I got freaked out. It turns out that the silly fraud alert does nothing more than make it impossible for you (the real YOU) to get your credit report online, over the phone, or anything else for 90 days. And, get this... with a fraud alert, accounts can STILL BE OPENED IN YOUR NAME! But, you won't know about it, because you won't be able to get your report information! So, whatever you do... If you are trying to clean up your credit, don't mention the word fraud. If you do, you'll end up having to send them a letter with all kinds of information about yourself to prove it's really you (as if this information is not already in the possession of whomever is masquerading as you). Big hassle. jeje
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