Subject: credit files study
Date: Sat, 06 Oct 2001 11:02:29 -0400
From: Greg Fisher
To: media.relations@andersen.com
CC: Norm Magnuson (nmagnuson@acb-credit.com), "D. Barry Connelly" (nmagnuson@acb-credit.com), Harry Gambill (hgambill@tuc.com)[see http://www.acb-credit.com/qspage.cfm?PageID=105], "Robert M. Denny" (rdenny@csc.com)[see http://www.acb-credit.com/qspage.cfm?PageID=105]

Trade assocation Associated Credit Bureaus, Inc. claims that "In the only statistically valid study conducted to date, Arthur Andersen concluded that in only two-tenths of one percent of the over 15,000 cases studied, were consumers denied a benefit based on an error in their credit report."

http://www.acb-credit.com/qspage.cfm?PageID=35

How can I obtain the study?

Greg:

If you send me you mailing address, I'll have the study sent to you.

Best regards,

Norm Magnuson
202.408.7406
202.371.0134 (Fax)
nmagnuson@acb-credit.com

Subject: Re: credit files study
Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 07:27:21 -0400
From: Greg Fisher (gfisher@erinet.com)
To: Magnuson (NMagnuson@acb-credit.com)

P.O. Box 342
Dayton, Ohio 45409-0342

Thank you.

Subject: Re: credit files study
Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 02:04:17 -0400
From: Greg Fisher (gfisher@erinet.com)
To: Magnuson (NMagnuson@acb-credit.com)

Today the Wall Street Journal reports Arthur Andersen is prepared to admit that some of its partners and employees obstructed justice.

Is the Andersen study about credit file accuracy credible?

creditaccuracy.com

Greg:

The Andersen study was undertaken in 1991 and its integrity has never been in question. To date, it is the only definitive, empirical study on accuracy based on a methodology and sample size large enough to validate the numbers.

Best regards,

Norm Magnuson
202.408.7406
202.371.0134 (Fax)
nmagnuson@cdiaonline.org

Subject: Re: credit files study
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2002 06:56:29 -0400
From: Greg Fisher (gfisher@erinet.com)
To: Magnuson (NMagnuson@cdiaonline.org)

Yet, last month, Equifax joined the companies who replaced Andersen with another accountant.

Tomorrow on creditaccuracy.com, I'm releasing to the public the Credit Report Reliability Study Executive Summary and letter from Arthur Andersen, both dated February 4, 1992. Do you have a comment?

Greg:

The statement I e-mailed last week is appropriate. Unless somebody can argue that the Andersen study results are in question based on some statistical evidence, I think its validity in the marketplace stands. I also think it would be wrong to impugn the integrity of Andersen's entire portfolio of work through the years based on the current problems they're having. At least history would indicate there were no issues with Andersen prior to Enron. Notwithstanding the fact that Andersen--the corporate entity--has yet to be found guilty of anything.

Norm

Subject: Re: credit files study
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 01:19:35 -0400
From: Greg Fisher (gfisher@erinet.com)
To: Magnuson (NMagnuson@cdiaonline.org)

Your Web site says, "In the only statistically valid study conducted to date, Arthur Andersen concluded that in only two-tenths of one percent of the over 15,000 cases studied, were consumers denied a benefit based on an error in their credit report," but the Credit Report Reliability Study executive summary does not give that statistic.

How did you arrive at that number?

Subject: Re: credit files study
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 12:10:35 -0400
From: Greg Fisher
To: Magnuson

Please respond.

Subject: Re: credit files study
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2002 08:45:48 -0400
From: Greg Fisher
To: Magnuson

Are you there?

[certified mail]

Greg Fisher
creditaccuracy.com
P.O. Box 342
Dayton, Ohio 45409-0342


May 21, 2002



Barry Connelly, president
Consumer Data Industry Association
1090 Vermont Avenue, N.W., Suite 200
Washington, D.C. 20005-4905

Your Web site says, "In the only statistically valid study conducted to date, Arthur Andersen concluded that in only two-tenths of one percent of the over 15,000 cases studied, were consumers denied a benefit based on an error in their credit report," but the Credit Report Reliability Study executive summary does not give that statistic.

How did you arrive at that number?

[signed]

Greg Fisher

[certified mail]

Greg Fisher
creditaccuracy.com
P.O. Box 342
Dayton, Ohio 45409-0342


May 21, 2002



Norm Magnuson, vice president of public affairs
Consumer Data Industry Association
1090 Vermont Avenue, N.W., Suite 200
Washington, D.C. 20005-4905

Your Web site says, "In the only statistically valid study conducted to date, Arthur Andersen concluded that in only two-tenths of one percent of the over 15,000 cases studied, were consumers denied a benefit based on an error in their credit report," but the Credit Report Reliability Study executive summary does not give that statistic.

How did you arrive at that number?

[signed]

Greg Fisher

[certified mail]

Greg Fisher
creditaccuracy.com
P.O. Box 342
Dayton, Ohio 45409-0342


May 21, 2002



Harry C. Gambill, director
Consumer Data Industry Association
1090 Vermont Avenue, N.W., Suite 200
Washington, D.C. 20005-4905

Your Web site says, "In the only statistically valid study conducted to date, Arthur Andersen concluded that in only two-tenths of one percent of the over 15,000 cases studied, were consumers denied a benefit based on an error in their credit report," but the Credit Report Reliability Study executive summary does not give that statistic.

How did you arrive at that number?

[signed]

Greg Fisher

Subject: credit file
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 23:56:32 -0400
From: Greg Fisher
To: Datateam@innovis-cbc.com, productsales@innovis-cbc.com
CC: shannon.buggs@chron.com

Eric Duhon, Chief information officer
Innovis Data Solutions

On July 16th, Houston Chronicle reporter Shannon Buggs wrote, "So, you can't call up Innovis and order your credit file, says Eric Duhon, Innovis' chief information officer."

If your thing called "Failsafe" is a "national database of consumers with unfavorable current or past credit histories" (as stated on your web site), then you sure seem like a credit reporting agency to me. Was Buggs' statement accurate?

Subject: Re: credit file
Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2001 08:35:10 -0400
From: Greg Fisher (gfisher@erinet.com)
To: Datateam@innovis-cbc.com, productsales@innovis-cbc.com, shannon.buggs@chron.com

Please respond.

Case documents

Subject: Incomplete consumer report
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 01:17:56 -0500
From: Greg Fisher, gfisher@erinet.com
To: Harry Gambill, hgambill@tuc.com

The consumer report I obtained directly from your company last month is incomplete. In the next five days, will you correct your reports so that they list the dates of delinquency?

Greg,

Please do not include me on your website. I will work with you.

Please reply with an address and ssn or the TU control number.

Subject: Re: Incomplete consumer report
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2001 00:05:07 -0500
From: Greg Fisher, gfisher@erinet.com
To: Harry Gambill, hgambill@tuc.com

In the next four days, will you correct your reports so that they list the dates of delinquency?

The Fair Credit Reporting Act states that you are to disclose to the consumer all information in the consumer's file at the time of the request, yet, in the case of the report you sent to me, you did not. I have a Trans Union report from another company selling them to consumers which contains the dates of delinquency, but yours did not.

Mr. Gambill, if you have someone else answer my question to you again, I'll go over your head.

In the next four days, will you correct your reports so that they list the dates of delinquency?

We must have you full name, address, and SSN to access your file and answer your questions.

Mr. Gambill, if you have someone else answer my question to you again, I'll go over your head.

Your call. I have trained executives to handle these matters. They are far better at it than I would ever be. I do not personalty [sic] process mail or other such requests.

Subject: Re: Incomplete consumer report
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 11:01:48 -0500
From: Greg Fisher, gfisher@erinet.com
To: Harry Gambill, hgambill@tuc.com
CC: Don Richman, drichman@tuc.com

It is not necessary for you to have my "full name, address, and SSN" to answer the question; it is a question about your practice, in general.

Do you withhold dates of delinquency in the reports you issue to consumers? In the next three days, will you correct your reports so that they list the dates of delinquency? Do you reveal those dates to other users of reports?

Greg,

In general, Trans Union LLC does not report dates of delinquency to users of reports, nor do we store dates of delinquency on our data base. Since we do not store delinquency dates, we do not disclose such dates on consumer disclosures. There is one field of data which Trans Union LLC calls the "maximum delinquency date", which does appear on credit reports to users and we do disclose to consumers... [Richman wrote about Fisher's personal credit report here-- that portion was removed.]

... Obviously, Trans Union LLC does report delinquency information. We provide users and consumers with a summary of their payment history on any given account over a period of time. For instance, a report may state, "In prior 48 months from last update: 3 times 90 days late, 3 times 60 days late, 4 times 30 days late". Or, a report may state, "In prior 36 months: never late." These payment history summaries, however, do not contain specific dates of occurrence.

You are correct that the FCRA requires credit reporting agencies to disclose all information in the consumer's file. We do so in our consumer disclosure.

Subject: Re: Incomplete consumer report
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 02:05:31 -0500
From: Greg Fisher, gfisher@erinet.com
To: Harry Gambill, hgambill@tuc.com
CC: commdept@marmon.com

commdept@marmon.com, please forward this email to Mr. Gambill's supervisor.

********************

Mr. Gambill:

The sample report at https://www.truecredit.com/Credit/TriSample.asp shows an account in the name of the creditor "GESCOM/UNIVAR COMMUNICATIONS." The Trans Union portion of that account listing gives dates of delinquency for individual months in 1996 (30 days late in May, 60 in June, 90 in July, 120 in August). How can that report show those specific dates of delinquency if Trans Union does not store dates of delinquency?

Greg,

Please be further advised that our counsel is of the opinion that we are providing full disclosure as required under the FCRA. It would appear the creditor you mention has made inferences, or used software that makes inferences, about the dates of certain data in consumer files. However, Trans Union LLC does not store those dates, and has no opinion on the validity of the inferences drawn by the creditor.

Do you have issues with your own information?

Subject: Re: Incomplete consumer report
Date: Wed, 07 Mar 2001 22:31:45 -0500
From: Greg Fisher, gfisher@erinet.com
To: Harry Gambill, hgambill@tuc.com
CC: Marmon Group, commdept@marmon.com

For what permissible purpose and under what circumstance did you furnish Mr. Richman with my credit file?

http://www.tenantscreening.com/readcredit/tu/report.cfm illustrates that Trans Union credit files include a separate category that shows the payment pattern of an account for the last 12 months. Do the reports you issue to users include that individual 12-month history which is separate from the entire history contained in the file? Do each of the twelve digits of the payment pattern correspond with a particular month in relation to the date of last report? Or do your reporters just deliver those at random to you?

Subject: Re: Incomplete consumer report
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 08:32:29 -0500
From: Greg Fisher
To: Harry Gambill, hgambill@tuc.com, Marmon Group, commdept@marmon.com

Please respond.

Subject: Incomplete disclosures to consumers
Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2001 10:39:01 -0500
From: Greg Fisher, gfisher@erinet.com
To: customer.care@equifax.com

As a result of my request to you to mail my credit report to me, I received a credit file from CBC Credit Services. That disclosure contained no toll-free telephone number at which your personnel are accessible to consumers.

In the next five days, will you correct your disclosures to consumers so that they list your toll-free number?

Subject: Re: Incomplete disclosures to consumers
Date: Wed, 07 Mar 2001 22:50:18 -0500
From: Greg Fisher, gfisher@erinet.com
To: customer.care@equifax.com

Are you there?

After paying you for your incomplete credit file disclosure, I found your email address at https://www.equifax.com/resources/contact.html and emailed the message below on March 1.

What is your supervisor's name? What is their email address?

Subject: Re: Incomplete disclosures to consumers
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 09:38:45 -0500
From: Greg Fisher
To: customer.care@equifax.com, danny.shaw@equifax.com, leanne.wyer@equifax.com, carl.maughan@equifax.com, john.ford@equifax.com, info@equifax.com.br, ECS.UK@equifax.com, dan.corcoran@equifax.com, valerie.harrison@equifax.com, lourdes.godfrey@equifax.com, e_commerce@equifax.com, secure.contact@equifax.com, resumes@equifax.com, weber@equifax.com, info@equifaxsecure.co.uk, leanne.wyer@equifax.com, email.cris.uk@equifax.com, elizabeth.overton@equifax.com, paycheck.accept@equifax.com, kristie.smith@equifax.com, huseyin.angay@equifax.com, EISC@EQUIFAX.com, toby.harris@equifax.com, marketing@asnefequifax.es, jorge.pino@equifax-cr.com, dawn.j.mahoney@equifax.com, marketing@asnefequifax.es, jim.lauret@equifax.com, jennifer.beretich@equifax.com, investor@equifax.com, joel.whitehead@equifax.com, linda.jacobsen@ends.com, Karen.Thomas@ends.com, chris.bauer@efx-ebanking.com, clientservices@efx-ebanking.com, techsupport@efx-ebanking.com, institute@efx-ebanking.com, service.bureau@equifax.com, alan.boyer@equifax.com, steve.francis@equifax.com, maureen.hanahoe@equifax.com, sherrie.latham@efx-ebanking.com, Kent.Wyatt@Equifax.com, Rodney.Caldwell@equifax.com, Elizabeth.Hammer@equifax.com, monique.bartolo@equifax.com, wally.sherer@equifax.com, marguerite.watanabe@equifax.com, CRHarris@equifax.com, steve.vanwieren@equifax.com, jzabicki@equifax.ca, Christine.Logsdon@equifax.com, imogene.duncan@equifax.com

Please respond.

Greg Fisher wrote:

> Are you there?
>
> After paying you for your incomplete credit file disclosure, I found your
> email address at https://www.equifax.com/resources/contact.html and emailed
> the message below on March 1.
>
> What is your supervisor's name? What is their email address?
>
> Greg Fisher wrote:
>
> > As a result of my request to you to mail my credit report to me, I
> > received a credit file from CBC Credit Services. That disclosure
> > contained no toll-free telephone number at which your personnel are
> > accessible to consumers.
> >
> > In the next five days, will you correct your disclosures to consumers so
> > that they list your toll-free number?

Mr Fisher:
I am sorry that you are having problems, but at least 2 of the addresses to which you sent your message do not deal with CREDIT BUREAU or CREDIT REPORTING at all!.
I am not able to assist you.

You might try contacting the original company who gave you the Credit Bureau names and instructed you how to get your statement.

The following addresses:
clientservices@efx-ebanking.com;techsupport@efx-ebanking.com are for software support sites and do not deal with Credit Reports.

Katie Varian, AAP
ACH Technical Support Team
Equifax E-Banking Solutions
Voice: 1-800-488-8614
Fax: 1-229-794-4100
Email: katie.varian@efx-ebanking.com

Subject: Re: Incomplete disclosures to consumers
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 13:21:36 -0500
From: Greg Fisher, gfisher@erinet.com
To: "Varian, Katie", Katie.Varian@efx-ebanking.com
CC: customer.care@equifax.com

Thank you for your sorrow.

The company that gave me Equifax's name was Equifax (your company): I obtained the Equifax name from the Equifax web site (www.equifax.com) that Equifax authors. So, I most certainly did contact the original company, Equifax (your company), at customer.care@equifax.com (the address at https://www.equifax.com/resources/contact.html). Please let me know if there is another Equifax email address with which to contact Equifax.

I didn't expect Equifax to ignore me after I paid Equifax.

Thank you; you were helpful on your level at Equifax. Perhaps through the Equifax chain of command, I can get Equifax's answer to my question to Equifax regarding Equifax. What is your supervisor's name and email address there at Equifax?

Here is an 800 number for Equifax's Credit Bureau 800-685-1111and a direct line to the Atlanta office for Credit Bureau 404-885-8000. Perhaps one of those will help you.
Wish you success.

Katie Varian, AAP
ACH Technical Support Team
Equifax E-Banking Solutions
Voice: 1-800-488-8614
Fax: 1-229-794-4100
Email: katie.varian@efx-ebanking.com

Subject: Re: Incomplete disclosures to consumers
Date:Wed, 14 Mar 2001 13:52:59 -0500
From: Greg Fisher, gfisher@erinet.com
To: "Varian, Katie", Katie.Varian@efx-ebanking.com
CC: customer.care@equifax.com

I won't find success with that information.

The toll-free number you gave is "The Equifax Credit File Ordering System." There is no one to talk to at that number.

Do you refuse to give me your supervisor's name and email address?

Dear Consumer,

Your credit file is maintained by CBC Credit Services, so your communication will need to be with them.

Thank you.
Equifax

Subject: Re: Incomplete disclosures to consumers
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 14:00:44 -0500
From: Greg Fisher, gfisher@erinet.com
To: EISC@equifax.com

Dear "Equifax":

Regarding the summary of rights to be included with credit file disclosures to consumers, the law states that agencies are to provide "in the case of a consumer reporting agency that compiles and maintains files on consumers on a nationwide basis, a toll-free telephone number established by the agency, at which personnel are accessible to consumers during normal business hours."

I heard that you are a consumer reporting agency that maintains files on a nationwide basis. You are such an agency, aren't you?

The postmark on the envelope containing my consumer disclosure was from Tampa, Florida. Is CBC in Tampa?

I believe I rec'd this email in error. thank you!

Dawn Mahoney
Instructor/Equifax Card Services (Madison)
608-836-2648/800-238-2827 ext. 2648
dawn.j.mahoney@equifax.com

Subject: Re: Incomplete disclosures to consumers
Date:Wed, 14 Mar 2001 14:59:48 -0500
From: Greg Fisher, gfisher@erinet.com
To: Dawn.J.Mahoney@equifax.com

Wrong! It was intended for you!

If you don't have the answer, please give me your supervisor's name and email address!