The FBI uses Equifax subsidiary ChoicePoint to gather dossiers on, well, everybody.

May 12, 2001 11:42 AM

The FBI uses Equifax subsidiary ChoicePoint to gather dossiers on, well, everybody. No surprise, but many people know how inaccurate these reports can be (see the link). Now they're being used by the FBI? The scene in Brazil where the guy gets SWAT-rushed in his house because of a spelling error comes to mind.
posted by aflakete (6 comments total)

Just a quick Equifax horror story. About 5 years ago, after being turned down for 3 credit cards in a row, I got a copy of my credit report from Equifax. Turns out, I had credit cards on there that belonged to:

My father (he's John Jr., I'm the 3rd, so I can almost understand that one)
My brother
My sister
My sister-in-law! (my brother's wife)

In addition, my sister's $20,000 in student loans were on there, as well as my brother's car loan.

Essentially, they thought I had about $40,000 in debt (and $70,000 in credit) that wasn't mine. It took about 8 months to clear up.

Last week, I got turned down for financing on a new car--I don't even want to see what bogus accounts are on my current report.
posted by jpoulos at 1:52 PM on May 12, 2001

You know that if you get turned down for credit, you can request a full copy of your current report.

Definitely keep tabs on it. A small personal anecdote about such things.
posted by hijinx at 1:59 PM on May 12, 2001

hey, i wonder if the fbi reads metafilter to find things out about people.

i am a commie-nazi and i plan to stop the UNICEF pennies!
posted by will at 2:11 PM on May 12, 2001

They got all of this for 8 million dollars?
posted by ttrendel at 3:43 PM on May 12, 2001

'clerical errors that can get people inside your home' or my favorite 'one column wont mean a lot'
posted by clavdivs at 6:03 PM on May 12, 2001

'Tis indeed a strange world out there. Some years ago I sent off for files under Freedom of Info Act. I got back a batch, just about everything having been blackened out so that only the words "but" "and" "so," etc could be read.
At the end of the documents was the notice that what had been crossed out was done for security purposes. However, if I wished to contest their censorship, I could. All I had to do was present my arguements based on what they had blackened out to show why I believed they should not have censored out the contested passages.
Inother words, read what was not readable to argue with them! Catch-22. Thus for the FOI Act.
posted by Postroad at 4:48 AM on May 13, 2001