Hello all, I applied for a job & during their background check they said there was "another name associated with my social sec. #". They said the other name was "Thomas" & was using my last name with it. I have never gone by that name or any other name for that matter. My given name is James. The company doing the investigation says they can't discuss it till I have my copy of their report & the Soc. Sec. office says the only name they show being associated w/my ss# is my given name. I checked my credit report online & there's no fraudulent info there that I can see. Does anyone know how I can find out the details on this or how I might find out who "Thomas" is and what he is doing on my soc. sec. number? Is this an error of some sort or something I should really worry about? Any help is greatly appreciated... James
Hi James, Did you get the job, or did they turn you down because of this? And ... how did you apply? In person, by mail, online, or telephone? ????
Hi Butch, Yes, they have offered me the job. I go in tomorrow to complete the new hire paperwork. I attended an open house session & had an interview there about 10 days ago & they made me the offer by phone a few days later. I even checked with the police who said the background check people should be able to tell me where & when this happened. They said after I find that out they can put an officer on it if there is criminal activity. I hope to know more tomorrow. I also got stopped last night for speeding (luckily the officer let me go with only a warning). I told him about "Thomas" & asked him when he ran my license if there was any other name besides my own on my record & he said no. Between that and the info from the social security people and the fact that there is no suspicious activity on my credit reports or my bank account, I think this is some mistake somewhere. I really want to be sure though. Nowadays you cannot trust anybody and there are so many crooks out there.. Thanks for the reply. James
It sounds like they are working with you in providing a copy of the report showing the variant name/SSN usage. That is your best trail to follow. You could have various names associated with your SSN, and the credit reports you requested under your name and SSN would not necessarily show them. They might show them as aliases for your name, or they might cause them to not be included on reports you requested. A potential creditor pulling "your" report would see the variations and be able to select the one they thought was "you", but you, the consumer, would have no way of knowing this was the case unless they told you. Although you may actually have someone illegally using your identity, be aware, however, that employment reports may pull information from various sources, some of which may be garbled. All of this information is derived from information that some company, whether a creditor, past potential employer, mailing list company, or whatever, supplied or sold to a company that then maintains a database from which they sift out what appears to match "you". Both the CRAs, and other databases, tend to lump stuff together that appears to be close to your identifying information, in order to be tolerant of "small" errors or variations. This can cause two people with combinations of similar names, similar SSNs, or even similar past addresses, to be presented as the "same" person. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/07/31/earlyshow/living/money/main517098.shtml See the articles on ChoicePoint on msnbc.com for the sorts of erroneous inferences these systems can make. Without even the level of visibility and correctability of the consumer credit reporting system, they can propagate a lot of garbage, as well as connect totally unrelated information and erroneously present it as pertaining to "you". http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7118767/
Hi Ontrack, Thank you for your reply. I have read some of your other posts here; you have very good ideas and information. I didn't get any new info from the new hire meeting today; all they said was "if it's a problem we will let you know". They are only concerned with how this affects my potential as an employee, not how it affects me personally or financially. I did call the background check company (they are called "A-Check", anyone heard of them?) They told me the info on my ss# came from Trans Union & gave me an 800 # to call to find out more about it. Unfortunately, you have to have their code from your Trans Union credit report to be able to speak to a human there. I have to check my credit reports that I pulled for the code, if it's not there I can pay Trans Union $12.95 to get another one pulled and get the code that way, or I can write to them for a free report & wait for it. A-Check did have ideas similar to yours: that it is due to another person with a similar ss# to mine being transposed to my report in error or visa versa...Everyone at A-Check that I spoke with said it very likely is a clerical error of some sort but the only way to know for sure is to contact Trans Union. So I can be sure what really happened I will call Trans Union & also get a copy of the A-Check report, when they complete their investigation. This is becoming a nightmare. I have never been in any kind of trouble before but now I have to spend all this time & money trying to sort it out. From reading posts here though I think I may get off easy compared to what others have been through. Short of selling everything I own & becoming a hermit living in a cave somewhere, how can I protect myself in a society like this??? Any info is greatly appreciated..... James
Note that under federal law, if they are considering using the report as a basis for deciding not to hire you, before they make any such decision, they must first provide you with a copy of that report, and allow you the opportunity to dispute or explain any erroneous items on it. Note that this disclosure requirement would be for the WHOLE employment investigative report, not just a copy of the consumer credit report they may have pulled. You might just request a copy from the company you applied to, citing the appropriate federal law, and that the investigation company has informed you of possible identity theft information on the report. There is enough ambiguity in the disclosure requirement (What degree of decision are they at, etc...), and in many cases they would in fact have to disclose, that they may just send it to you. Just saying "We don't disclose reports", and then notifying you they didn't hire you, would leave them in a legally unsupportable position. Actually, pulling a consumer credit report may, or may not, show this problem. It depends how narrow or how broad their inquiry was. You could request a report with your full name and SSN, and get just you. They could pull up anything close and select those "identities" that might be you. They might see name or SSN variations that you might not. I think the disclosure requirement is under FCRA, or FACTA, but I am not sure.
Remember the "same birthday" problem? How many people do you have to have at a party to have a good chance that two have the same birthday? At 23 people, the odds are 50:50. http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/pages/puzzlezone/muse/muse0302.asp As you allow merging of "close" identities, the more cases you have, and the higher the chance that erroneous mergers will occur.
Thanks for the info on the law. Let's just hope it doesn't come to that. Verizon has offered me the position; I am to start there March 20th. What I am worried about is Verizon firing me when they get the incorrect info from A-Check. As for A-Check, I called their office today & informed them that a manager from TransUnion checked the info TransUnion has on file for my soc. sec. # and the ONLY name they have listed for me is my given name, the same one I have used for almost 42 years. The A-Check rep then told me they used info from Experian, not TransUnuion! They need to get their story straight, but that is another issue altogether. I thought it was strange that Experian has a total of 4 incorrect names listed on my Experian credit report, while there were no incorrect names on the TransUnion report. So now I have to call Experian and go through all this again with them and hope they will provide me with documentation of their errors so I can provide it to A-Check. A-Check is putting the responsibility on ME to clear up THEIR incorrect information. Funny thing is I don't remember applying for a job at A-Check. You would think that organizations that have such a profound impact on a man's personal and financial life would be more thorough and accurate before presenting such potentially harmful and obviously incorrect information.... I will post more on this as it develops. Thanks again for all your help.. James
You aren't going to get the straight story until you get a copy of the report, in writing. Ask, in writing.
Finally confirmed the incorrect name info was on my Exp CR. They were very helpful and corrected my CR quickly. They emailed me that it was done, I printed the corrected report & the confirmation email and faxed all to A-Check today. Exp said they would notify A-Check of their error and the fact it had been verified and corrected. I confirmed A-Check received my fax today, they said they got it & "it is in the dept. it needs to be to be reviewed". A very helpful rep there said he would tell the recruiter at my new job they had a corrected CR once they received my fax. I also left a voice mail for the HR recruiter advising I had cleared up the error & A-Check would send the correct info to them if they requested it. Thank God, I'm finally done worrying about this problem. Am certain HR has bigger fish to fry anyway. Like I said before, I am sure I got off easy compared to what some of you here have been through. I'll worry about this if my new job has problems with it, otherwise I'm glad it's over. Thanks to all here who posted & tried to help. JamesN710
