Equifax/CSC

LOTS of fraud going on with these two players.

Anyone have any idea how many or which states EQUIFAX does not operate in?

A national CRA refusing consumers on a statewide basis...saving lots of money on phone bills and phone reps.

For those consumers who are not familiar with the "affiliate," I suspect that this makes no sense.

Pls share any stories about bad dealings with Equifax...they are up to some dirty, dirty stuff.

 

OT, thanks for the response.

This is a longer story...so for starters:

In the past, I requested that Equifax disclose my Equifax file to me. I was told by Equifax that my requests were being referred to CSC.

Each copy of my file that I received in the mail shortly thereafter bears the return address of CSC. Naturally, I assumed that these files were sent to me by CSC (and not Equifax).

I recently learned that each of these files actually was sent to me by Equifax (and not CSC).

Therefore, in order to comply with 15 U.S.C. §1681g(c)(2)(B), these files must state "a toll-free telephone number established by the agency, at which personnel are accessible to consumers during normal business hours."

If you have requested your file directly from Equifax and received a file that you believe came from CSC, STOP and INVESTIGATE the inquiries on that file.

If you see an "EQUIFAX" inquiry with a month/year that corresponds to the date of that file and you do NOT see a corresponding "CSC CONSUMER DISCLOSURE" inquiry, then that file was disclosed by EQUIFAX (and not CSC).

Equifax recently admitted to me that Equifax disclosed a handfull of files to me, each of which bears CSC's return address and a toll free number for CSC's "information line," 800-392-7816.

This telephone number is not established by Equifax and NO (Equifax or CSC) representative is "accessible" to me at this number. CSC does have a dispute telephone number that CSC representatives answer (at best) Monday - Thursday, 888-700-3183. CSC's dispute line was not answered by any representative during some of December 2004-January 2005. I have yet to determine the precise dates that CSC was closed during the 'holiday season.'
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I have only described the tip of the iceberg.

 

OT, I have an ongoing complaint with the Minnesota AG and FTC. Both complaints were initiated during July 2004. This is not a new issue,

I hope to alert other consumers to the fact that Equifax does make disclosures pursuant to 609(a)(1) to consumers who are in "CSC territories," despite Equifax's verbal assertions that the request has been "referred to CSC."

The first step in recognizing that Equifax has violated 609(c)(2)(B) is identifying which disclosures were made by EQUIFAX to the consumer. As I stated above, this is tricky because the return address always appears to be that of CSC.

 

If Equifax has CSC respond in its name, would that not establish that CSC is Equifax's agent, and that therefore Equifax is responsible for any compliance failures made by CSC when CSC responds to any communication sent to Equifax? Particularly if the CRA "face" presented to users of reports is Equifax, regardless of whether the underlying data is "owned" by CSC.

What I have described above is Equifax's disclosures pursuant to Section 609(a)(1) that appear to be disclosures made by CSC by virtue of the return address. These disclosures are actually made by Equifax.

Equifax's false representation of the return address serves at least two purposes: (1) it gets consumers to direct their future communications to CSC by mail (not by phone, the toll free # that Equifax provides is the # for CSC's "information line"), and (2) the consumer is unlikely to recognize the disclosure as one that is made by Equifax and therefore subject to the requirement imposed by Section 609(c)(2)(B).

CSC holds itself out as a "consumer reporting agency." (I don't presently believe that CSC is a "consumer reporting agency.")

If a user, or a consumer, pulls a report on a consumer from Equifax, where they claim CSC actually owns the data, what does the report say about the source of the data? Does it say it is from Equifax, or from CSC?

As to "users," I have no reason to believe that Equifax falsely represents anything to its subscribers ("customers"). Every user that appears in the hard inquiry section of my file has informed me that it obtained my Equifax report. No user has confirmed its receipt of a CSC consumer report. This is a major reason why I question CSC's alleged status as a "consumer reporting agency." It is not the only reason.

I know what you are getting at: Do the files that I receive from Equifax and/or CSC state "CSC file" or "Equifax file." The answer is NO. Good question--I gather that you are not a "CSC consumer."

CSC disclosures and Equifax disclosures each state:

"Thank you for requesting your credit file..."

No portion of any file expressly identifies the file as a "CSC file" or an "Equifax file."

In addition to the fact that CSC's return address appears on each and every file, there are subtle (or maybe not so subtle) representations that would cause a consumer to think that the file came from CSC. For example, each file states: "..please visit our website at www.csccredit.com..."

The envelopes are all virtually IDENTICAL. None of them have a postmark and they only state "Tampa, FL" in the prepaid postage area.

I have searched for nuances and really need to take a magnifying glass to each file before I can report more on this aspect.

As I said above, the INQUIRY section is the dead giveaway.

I have a question for "Equifax consumers." Do your Equifax files say "Equifax file" or anything that would alert you to the fact that you are unequivocally looking at an Equifax file?

 

That url to CSC's site has .... after it so that is why it does not work.

Click on http://www.csccredit.com

Try clicking on "National Credit Repository Contact Information"

CSC is not a nationwide CRA.

The telephone numbers provided for CSC and Equifax correspond to their "information line."

I am not sure about the # for Experian, but that number for TU rings to a live operator.

You cannot hyperlink that webpage or save it to your hard drive. Keep in mind that Computer Sciences Corporation is a large company, $16 billion annual revenue and 90,000 employees.