Credit bureaus upsell ID theft victims, FTC report says

Source: MSNBC

3 hours ago

Credit bureaus upsell ID theft victims, FTC report says

By Bob Sullivan

A new report by the Federal Trade Commission slams the nation's credit bureaus for upselling identity theft prevention services when victims call looking for help.

The report found that consumers face frustrating voice mail systems that often make it hard to reach a live operator, are confused about their rights and face unnecessary hurdles fixing credit report errors caused by identity thieves. It also pointedly raises the possibility that the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could initiate enforcement actions against the bureaus -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

The report comes as that new agency is about to take on regulation of he credit bureaus, a major shift in the way they are policed. The bureau’s new powers will kick in this summer.

The FTC’s findings are the result of a years-long survey of 3,000 ID theft victims who had contacted the agency, and a subset of those victims. The study was mandated in 2007 by the Bush administration’s Identity Theft Task Force.

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