Consumerinfo.com mailed me a letter telling me my "membership had been activated". (I never order a membership and I did not even ask for a free credit report, as many report doing to become entangled with this company.) I called the toll-free number to see what it was about and to cancel the unwanted "membership".
When I called, the first thing they wanted to know was my SS number. Fat chance I'm giving that to someone I suspect is a scammer, so we settled for last 4 digits. They said it was "a match" but would not tell me the rest they had on record. They explained that if I didn't cancel, I would be billed a monthly fee. They further told me that the "Personal Access Code" in the letter they sent me could not be used to access my "account" to cancel it. And that if I chose to cancel online, I'd need the username/password I had selected. Funny, I know nothing of a username or password... I had never heard of these folks when the letter came.
They told me that in order to cancel, I HAD to give them my SS numer, my mother's maiden name, email address, date of birth. These are ALL private data used for authentication; I had never given them to them before and wasn't about to now.
We settled on last three letters of mother's maiden name. NOT a match to what they had on file. Nor was my date of birth.
If the info that I would give them does NOT match what they say they have on file, giving them that info could not "authenticate" ANYTHING, but sure would arm the scammers with valuable personal info about me.
They told me I simply could not cancel (membership I did not ask for) without supplying this info, or, (get this) mailing them a photocopy of my driver license and/or passport!!! Yeah, RIGHT!
After over two hours and talking with three fairly obnoxious employees, the last one I talked with FINALLY admitted that they COULD access my account using the Personal Access Code, and he said he was cancelling my membership. I hope he did.
The consumerinfo.com employees assured me their company is reputable, and is a subsidiary of Experian. Perhaps Experian IS a legitimate company, but I can only conclude that Consumerinfo.com is a fraudulent step-child scam-artist run by some overzealous folks VERY short on ethics.
NO reputable company signs people up for accounts they did not ask for, and NO reputable company asks for personal information such as SSN, mother's maiden name, etc. When that information has not previously, willingly, and knowingly been given to the company.
Consumerinfo.com can ONLY be a scam. The letter they mailed had some of the hallmarks of a scam:
-a letterhead with NO ADDRESS!
-a "personalized" letter that is not signed by anybody with a name (and on the phone, employees have only first names), sure signs that the company knows what it's doing is not on the up-and-up
-the ZIP code on the envelope didn't even match the ZIP code the employees gave me over the phone, which differes from the one on their website
Furthermore, only one person I talked with at Consumerinfo.com admitted to having a supervisor. "Ernie" FINALLY connected me with his supposed supervisor, "June". She told me she didn't have a supervisor, so I assume she's the president.
It gives me the creeps that these murky and very unprofessional folks have personal info about me, even if most of it seems to be wrong. But a PERFECT scam idea would entail having some personal data that's wrong, and asking the person to correct it, "for the sake of accuracy in credit reporting"... And do it under the guise of being affiliated with a supposedly reputable credit reporting agency.
I can only conclude that this was an attempt at identity theft.
Remember Enron? Remember Worldcom? Remember Tyco? We'd better believe that there ARE supposedly reputable companies out there scamming, and Consumerinfo.com very much appears to be one.
Dennis
Cudjoe Key, Florida
U.S.A.
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