Experian kills off another consumer

What's with these credit bureaus?  One of the many recurring problems with the credit bureaus is that they often report consumers as deceased when they are very much still alive.  But don't let a little thing like a pulse contradict a credit bureau's pronouncement of death!  Here's a quote from an article about yet another "deceased" consumer with a heart beat -

"They said, 'I'm really sorry, but we can't process this loan any further because we have a report declaring you deceased," Julie Kerr recalled.


No one was more surprised to hear the report of Julie's mother's death than Julie's mother herself, Ann Howe of Bothel, Washington.

"I just said, 'What? What are they talking about?' I said, 'I'm certainly alive. My doctor knows I'm alive," Howe said.

Howe indeed is alive and well, but she could not get anybody to believe her even though she goes into Bank of America all the time.

"Everybody knows my mom there," said Kerr. "My mom's this happy-go-lucky chatterbox."

"Bank of America knew that I was coming in there. I have automatic deposits that go in there," Howe said.

However, seeing was not believing. So, Howe sent an official notarized letter to Bank of America saying, "The report of my demise is inaccurate information."

"We understand she's alive. We understand it's a mistake, but because we can't get a credit score from Experian, there's nothing we can do," Kerr said.

SO even though the lender knew this "happy-go-lucky chatterbox" was alive, they believed Experian's claim she was dead over the lady's own beating heart.  And, of course, Experian refused to fix the problem, thereby violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which is a pretty common occurrence at Experian. 

Kerr was finally able to resurrect her mother after a local TV station got involved and put some heat on the situation.  Good for the tv stations, but, really folks, it shouldn't take the threat of bad press to get a simple to fix error fixed.  Guess she should have use the magic words "its only a flesh wound"!

Here's a link to the full article - http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/7_on_your_side&id=7270195

Countrywide settles class action lawsuit for mere "slap on the wrist"

What a crock.  Countrywide, who allowed a rogue employee to steal the personal information of over 17 million of its customers (me included), has achieved preliminary court approval for its settlement of a class action lawsuit filed against it.  The proposed settlement - Countrywide (now owned by Bank of America) - gives each of the potential victims a wopping settlement of ... drum roll please ... free credit monitoring!  Whoo whoo, go cash that voucher in quick, its worth sooooo much more than your good name!  Can you smell the sarcasm?!

What a joke of a settlement.  I for one will be opting out.  Don't know if I will sue separately yet or not, may even be past the statute of limitations, but I am definitely not going to accept free credit monitoring in settlement of anything.

Oh, the settlement does provide for up to $50,000 for anyone that can prove their identity was stolen as a result of Countrywide's data breach but, surprise surprise, no one's been able to meet Bank of America's burden of proof on that one yet.  Not that $50,000 is much for an identity theft victim.  I fairly routinely get multiples of that for my clients. 

Shirley Norton, a spokeswoman for Bank of America, said the settlement is “in the bank's best interest” to avoid additional legal expenses. "We look forward to moving ahead with the settlement,” Norton said.  I bet they are, given the favorable terms of the settlement for BOA.


Luckily, there is a fairness hearing set for July.  Maybe someone can step forward and convince U.S. District Judge Thomas Russell of Kentucky to stop this lunacy and reinstate the lawsuit so the injured consumers can get some real relief.

Identity thief gets 11 years

A California Federal Court sentenced Garden Grove, California man to eleven years in prison for masterminding two identity theft schemes that allowed him to steal personal information from hundreds of consumers.  He then stole their identities, using the consumers' identities to fraudulently obtain over $1.5 million from credit card accounts and home equity lines of credit.

In additon to his sentencing, Martin Quoc Pham was also ordered to pay restitution of nearly $538,000.  While Pham used the stolen identities to access legitimate home equity lines of credit with Chase Bank, I representing a plaintiff in a similar case involving Bank of America.  While the identity thief initially begins the consumers' nightmare, it is the banks that keep the problem going.  In my case, Bank of America made error after error, completely ignoring my client's proof of his innocence.

In another scheme, Pham used fraud credit cards to buy merchandise from Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores. Pham and his cohorts were able to obtain over $300,000 in merchandise fraudulently.  Pham's three co-conspirators already pled guilty to the scheme.