Callcredit refuse to remove incorrect data

branwynbach

Having a total horrow show situation with a credit reference agency.
For the last few months I keep getting chased for bad debt which isn't mine. I suspect ID fraud but when I contact the companies that are chasing me we mostly discover some personal details that are wrong. The accounts are cancelled and that's that. This has happened quite a lot and is a pain in the !!! to keep following up.
It happened again this week so I ask the company in question where they get their data, which turns out to be somewhere called Callcredit.
So I follow up this place and they recommend I run a credit report. Oh My God. The report shows masses of activity which isn't mine, an incorrect address link and an incorrect electoral role link. I dispute it all but it's an online only company so I just get silence.
Yesterday one of my disputes is rejected. Apparently there is too much evidence of me living in Northampton for it not to be correct. (I Have lived and worked in London for 20yrs!)
At this point I get more annoyed and phone Callcredit back (they who generate the damn data links as far as I know) and they say they can't help me cause they don't have access to the data. Again, WTH?
Anyone have any experience of this? It looks like a credit reference company has wrongly linked me to another person with the same name but is now refusing to break the data links. They made this link using some kind of software but any level of scrutiny by a human of average intelligence would show how flawed it is, accept I can't get hold of a human who will look into it and Callcredit say they can't access the data. Surely this is rubbish? What the hell do I do next?

Gaz83

If you suspect ID fraud, what action have you taken? Have you contacted Action Fraud?

branwynbach

Yeah I've contacted Action Fraud and put a CIFAS protection thing on my details.

The majority of the problem seems to be coming from bad Callcredit data though. There is an address, TEN accounts and an electoral role entry on my Noddle credit report that just isn't mine.

GingerBob_3

CallCredit and the other operators (Equifax and Experian) are pretty much laws unto themselves, but in theory they are regulated by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). It's "light" regulation at best. You could complain to the ICO about this.

branwynbach

Thanks I will do. But in the meantime my credit score has been annihilated which has very serious consequences!
Does anyone know how these data links are made? The whole thing seems incredibly unethical.

antrobus

branwynbach wrote: »

Thanks I will do. But in the meantime my credit score has been annihilated which has very serious consequences!
Does anyone know how these data links are made? The whole thing seems incredibly unethical.

It's a 'mis-trace'.

Aside from their credit referencing function each of the CRAs operates a separate ‘tracing’ facility which is used by lenders and debt collection companies who are trying to find a client who has stopped making payments and appears to have moved without telling them. A ‘mis-trace’ occurs when an organisation is searching for an individual but mistakenly traces someone with the same or similar name. When the results of a trace are provided to a lender they are expected to make ‘tentative’ approaches only and carry out further checks to confirm the identity of the individual as per the terms of their user agreement with the CRA.

https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/credit/

GingerBob_3

antrobus wrote: »

It's a 'mis-trace'.

Aside from their credit referencing function each of the CRAs operates a separate ‘tracing’ facility which is used by lenders and debt collection companies who are trying to find a client who has stopped making payments and appears to have moved without telling them. A ‘mis-trace’ occurs when an organisation is searching for an individual but mistakenly traces someone with the same or similar name. When the results of a trace are provided to a lender they are expected to make ‘tentative’ approaches only and carry out further checks to confirm the identity of the individual as per the terms of their user agreement with the CRA.

https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/credit/

This doesn't explain how the erroneous data has found its way onto CallCredit's credit reference files. A so-called 'trace' should not result in data being placed on credit reference files - should it? Oh yes, it probably does!


OP, you might consider hitting CallCredit with a Subject Access Request - that's not a request for their statutory credit reports, but it's an order for the full monty - EVERYTHING they have about you (and you'll find it's probably a lot more than they disclose on credit reference files). It will cost £10, but might shed some light on how, and from where, they've harvested data about someone else that has been posted against you.