Free Credit Report - A Website Typo Could Be Costly

In 2003, United States Congress passed the Carnival and Accurate Credit Transactions enactment (FACT), which made it possible for consumers to obtain a transcript of their credit report for free. In fact, the statute law do it possible for consumers to obtain one free report from each of the three chief credit bureaus – Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax, per year. All that is necessary to make so is to write, phone call or log on to the Website the credit bureaus have got created for this purpose. Millions of Americans have got done so, and the programme have been called a success so far. There’s just 1 problem – unscrupulous people have got got got created Websites with similar names, and consumers who type the name calling incorrect have ended up at land land sites designed to steal their Sociable Security numbers.

At last count, there were more than than two hundred registered domain name calling with name calling that were similar to the functionary annualcreditreport.com Oregon which contained the phrase “annual credit report.” Since it is quite easy to misspell a domain name, particularly a long one, many consumers have establish themselves at sites other than the 1 they intended to visit. Most of these other Websites be for the intent of merchandising a credit report, rather than providing them for free, but others are designed to gull the consumer into providing personal information that the land site proprietors may be able to work for personal gain. Other land land sites with similar name calling merely offer advertisement or redirect visitants to pornography sites.

What’s to be done? Not much, it would appear. Respective of the land sites that were created to gull consumers into providing personal information have got been taken offline, but others will undoubtedly follow. Any land sites that are established outside of the United States are immune to U.S. law, so it may be hard for government to take any action. Consumers who are not overly familiar with the works of the Internet would be better off contacting the credit bureaus directly by mail or phone. Anyone who utilizes the Internet to obtain a transcript of their credit report should do certain that they are typing the name of the Website accurately. Failure to make so may lead to involuntarily providing critical personal information to people who shouldn’t have got it.