The Bureaus, Inc.

Needing advice on next steps? I received an email for a transaction from Square, I checked the email address and it checks out. It alerted me to a charge, that I did not make, but the last 4 numbers of the credit card shown are not a credit card that I have. My credit is frozen with at least one of the bureaus if not all 3, so I am fairly confident it would not be a new account, I will check the other two. I have had no new alerts of a new account opening. To add some context I am fairly confident in the validity of this email as 2 days prior I received a similar email, checked the card identified, it was showing the listed transactions, started a dispute and promptly closed the card. The longer I sit here it sounds like someone opened a card in my name, but would I have not seen something sooner from Experian or even Credit Karma about an inquiry to open a new card. What is the reasonable likelihood that the credit card number got re-used? 10\^16... Contact the Seller to try get more information? That seems like the only other angle for this to be scammy and not actually a legit email pointing to another issue.

Sub: Your loan for Rs 4500 is disbursed We are pleased to have disbursed a loan for Rs.4500 @ 1% interest per day for a period of 30 days on the terms and conditions agreed by you. Your repayment amount is Rs. 5805 Please repay on due date to avoid penal charges. Repaying this loan on time will keep your record straight, not only with us but also in the Bureaus. We are always there with you, and you can take another loan from us immediately after repayment Best regards, Ram Fincorp [BBB Scam Type: Advance Fee Loan] [Business: Ram Fincorp] [Location: MN, USA- 55092]

I am wanting everyone to please be caution of any monitoring alert regarding your credit. My scammers, C**** & G******** B***** of the Shiny Hunters have cloned my account and have been sending our fake monitoring alerts on businesses that I have done business with and I have paid off. This is harassment and they are wanting to destroy my financiers continuously. They will attack your financiers to enrich themselves not caring that the account was still opened when I accessed to learn about the alerts! Before they attack our finances, we were doing great. I went from a 749 to a 431. They continue to gray out good credit, abstracting our payments from paid off accounts making them due again adding them to our credit leaving us to fix the mess they made. They also, attack these businesses, through the credit bureau. For instance, when we request a copy of our credit report, they don’t come from the bureaus, they come from the B******. The Equifax in 2017 it is my belief they were responsible because I had fake Equifax reports. They are using my credit and now as I stated before, they caused the Trans union data breach. I received one of the data breach letters with pushed fonts and different names of fonts on the letter,. Everyone G********, C**** B***** Sr are dangerous people. They have caused the Snap attacks in the media and they have caused the Toll scams and the DMV scam. I receive text messages with; multiple text messages with at least 11 people in a group text and spoofing numbers.. please be careful of these two as they are being investigated [BBB Scam Type: Identity Theft] [Business: Experian- Imposter] [Location: TX, USA- 77423]

Sent credit blocking requests and nothing has been blocked I sent all of the credit bureaus blocking request due to identity theft with proof of id, ftc report, and the FCRA info and nothing has been blocked by any of the bureaus. It’s been about 5 business days. Is there anything else I can do ?

University was hacked Hi, My university, which never had good security (medical staff shared the personal records of students via normal email that got leaked, the accounting office accidentally broadcasted credit card numbers being read to the over the phone, etc) , was hacked and the SSN, addresses, names, and the other information of several students and their parents were obtained. What is the plan of action? I know to freeze credit is the first step (call the bureaus and undergo the process) . Should police reports be filed pre-emptively, can the school be asked to help in protective efforts, can they be sued?

Fraudulent account went to collections I need some advice. My identity was stolen and someone in another state got cable/internet with my info. I didn’t know about this until a collection popped up on my credit report a couple months ago for $634. I disputed the item on all three bureaus- equifax and transunion took it off, but experien is still “investigating”. I got a letter yesterday from the collection agency (they have my last name totally wrong - I was able to dispute and get that name removed from all 3 bureaus) but according to it, the amount is now $1028. My problem is that even if all the bureaus take it off, won’t I still have a collection out there with my info on it? I was advised years ago to not contact a collection agency because it legitimatizes the charge, but I feel I need to contact them and set things straight. I just don’t want to misstep and make things worse. Not sure what to do…

PSA: Freezing your three main credit reports is NOT ENOUGH This is the case for two main reasons: * **Identity thieves can sometimes undo your security freezes** if they are persistent enough - often either by calling in to the bureaus or by passing the (joke of a) security quiz) * There are **several other bureaus** that may be checked instead of one of the main three This sounds discouraging, but there is a way to protect yourself despite this. Although identity thieves can often undo security freezes, **it is usually difficult for them to undo** ***extended*** **fraud alerts**, possibly except for with TransUnion, which appears to allow their removal online (so keep a close eye on TransUnion). (If the identity thief already has a photocopy of your ID *and* your SSN, or is persistently trying to lift your freezes, you should apply for a new SSN ASAP) Regarding the second point, it is possible to pin-point each freezable credit bureau and freeze them, as the CFPB maintains a list of bureaus, and notates which ones are or are not freezable. If you are a victim of identify theft, **I would highly recommend placing extended fraud alerts AND security freezes on ALL of the bureaus in the list below** (in addition to Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) **Bureaus used for bank account applications:** * **ChexSystems:** IMO this one is ***really*** important to freeze, even if you're not a victim of identity theft (however, I personally wouldn't place a fraud alert here unless identity theft was a threat) * **LexisNexis:** holds public records, but often used by financial institutions to verify identity * SageStream is now part of LexisNexis, so freezing LexisNexis will also freeze SageStream * ChexSystems sometimes pulls from LexisNexis, so when unfreezing ChexSystems to apply for bank accounts, you should unfreeze LexisNexis as well * Note: Early Warning Services (EWS) is also used to review bank account applications, but they do not offer security freezes o

Question re: credit freezes & government accounts? I have a question for anyone here who's had their identity stolen, and might've enacted a credit freeze? (which I STRONGLY recommend you do with the 3 major credit bureaus if that unfortunately does happen to you). For those who don't know, when you implement a freeze, it makes it so that whenever you have a credit check done or open a new line of credit in your name-- like a new checking account, buying a car etc-- that you have to call in to those bureaus to temporarily lift that freeze. My question is though, does anyone know if there's some sort of exception made if it's like a government account? (and not an account with say a private institution, like a bank, automobile manufacturer, mortgage lender, etc). Reason I ask is that I recently had an acquaintance talk me into signing up for something called a Treasury Direct account where you purchase bonds from the government using a government (and no, I don't want this post to seem like a roundabout endorsement of these; honestly from my limited experience so far, it's been a real hassle, with very limited support available to answer questions etc). I was able to go online and open an account within minutes, entering my name, address, SSN etc, a banking account to buy from etc. However after doing so, in light of the freeze, it made me wonder: HOW was I able to do so so easily?? Why wasn't I contacted to see if this wasn't some attempt at fraud? It actually made me wonder if my credit freeze was indeed still in place/that I hadn't tried lifting it temporarily and they'd kept it open by mistake. Nonetheless, I was able to reach ONE of the bureaus (since it's practically impossible to get a live agent, chat with someone online, or email anyone directly with any of these bureaus to answer any questions), and they did indeed confirm that my credit freeze was still in place. Anyway, just thought I'd ask to see if anyone had any experience/knowledge of this, the

There is no hope. The identity thief hacked my accounts on TransUnion and Equifax! Years ago, I had experienced a lot of identity theft and I learned that freezing my credit reports with Equifax, TransUnion, Experian and ChexSystems was a good way of stopping them. I had these PIN numbers and everything that I kept secret. Two weeks ago, I get an alert on a credit card saying my information was updated (email and phone number). I immediately called to get my access back. That was just the start. Last week I get a letter from Discover Card saying my application was rejected due to my credit being frozen. That was expected. Today, I noticed 2 temporary passwords from password reset emails from TransUnion. I tried to log in and I couldn't. I tried to reset my password and I could not because the email was changed. I called in to get my account back and they confirmed my credit was no longer frozen. After I got that sorted out I checked Experian and Equifax. Equifax remained frozen but Experian was compromised and not only was my credit unfrozen, but I was already getting hard inquiries from banks for credit card applications. I updated my PIN with the person on the phone (because I couldn't do it online) but they basically told me there is nothing stopping the thief from coming in and unfreezing my credit again. Same for TransUnion. So those PINs are pointless, security questions are pointless. I have dude's phone number because he used it on several applications and also to get through 2FA on one of the accounts he stole. He's basically calling in and human hacking his way through the systems and he was able to get through TransUnion and Experian. Is this game over? I did the [IdentityTheft.org](https://IdentityTheft.org) thing, I've had active credit monitoring for years now. I've reported to the Bureaus that they were compromised and I refroze my credit. I did everything one can possibly do, but I had already done this years ago and today, they thief got throug

Parents opened credit cards in my name I turned 18 a month ago. My parents confessed they have been using my name for credit cards. While I am angry I do not want my parents to go to jail. My question is how can I proceed to clean this up. They told me the payments went into delinquent status back in 2013. They haven’t touched it since then. In 2 years that will be 7 years and I can have it removed from my report. But my birthday is wrong and I want to apply for a secured card while waiting the 2 years. Is this possible to do without them getting in trouble? Can I tell the bureaus that my birthday is wrong or will they alert police? I know many of you will say turn them in, but I really don’t want to do that. My folks were pretty messed up back then and have finally got themselves together and are trying to right many wrongs. Jail is not an option. Just please tell me what I can do. Thanks