Most of are aware of what the three Credit bureaus are. These are companies that use data provided by credit furnisher to assess your ability to pay back debt. They then sell this data to a lending agency with a score that correlates to how they interpret the consumers ability to pay back a loan. They are most definitely “for profit” organizations. However, they can also be involved in a number of scams. Especially in situations where users are not aware of what these bureaus can provide. It turns out that credit bureau fraud is up and reaching record breaking numbers according to new data.
So what does record breaking mean? There have been over 517,000 credit bureau fraud claims in the first half of 2023 alone. This comes from information presented by the Federal Trade Commission, and it illustrates a disturbing trend that these scams are becoming an ever more prominent and a very real threat to the average consumer.
To compare, in the first half of 2019 the reported fraud complaints were at 77,762. In the first half of 2023 the complaint totals an astonishing 517,128. These threats are very real and very much on the rise.
Fraudulent activity has been on the rise every single year. But it’s important to note that if 2023 keeps it’s current trajectory, we may see the highest reported fraudulent activity in decades!
These credit bureaus collect immense amounts of data including highly sensitive and personal details. They have consumers’ addresses, birthday, partial social security numbers, and credit card information. Any one of those data points could end up in the wrong hands. People committing these frauds often use tactics of scouring the dark web, subscribe and poach data from websites like People Finder, Spokeo, ID True, etc. All they need is to piece bits of data together to build a pile of data on a person in order to fraudulently apply for credit cards and possibly much worse. Preventing easy access to lines of credit, such as applying for credit on-line, would be very harmful as well. Both to the average consumer and the credit card companies themselves. I’m not pretending to have the answer to these very real problems that exist. But it’s clear that there must be some action to quell these opportunities for these crooks.
What I can say with a fair amount of certainty…. If you feel you have been a victim of fraud, please reach out to us. Our Credit Advisors are trained on how to help minimize the damage and also work on your behalf if fraudulent activity has now made it’s way on to your credit report. We have many tools at our disposal to show you how you can protect yourself in the future as well.
1-800-994-3070
