Swift Advances plc & CRA's

[Sparkie1723]

Re: Swift Advances plc & CRA's

Lets see what kind of stuff hits the fan with this


To Mr Shawn Holtzcalw
Managing Director/CEO
Equifax Ltd

Dear Mr Holtzclaw,

I have previously e-mailed you about issues surrounding information being supplied which in my opinion is being criminally supplied, each time you have passed these e-mails downwards in your organisation.

I suggest quite strongly that you deal with this situation personally, as I inform you that your security system is not secure and is unsafe

I have made your senior customer relations manager Kathryn Keogh aware of this and she has disregarded my allegations and has closed her “so called” investigations.

You will be able to obtain all correspondence surrounding my complaints, I will therefore not repeat them. I have submitted evidence to your Kathryn Keogh that on two occasions your security system was breached by a covert method and both my credit file and my partner’s credit file were extracted from your data base and hard copied without our knowledge or consent at the time of this copying.

Equifax have no record of these intrusions, but I have the result of these unauthorised unrecorded access searches, copies of the files that were extracted from your “ Secure System”????.

This is a serious issue that you should investigate personally, as under corporate law you are completely responsible for this invasion into our privacy both under the Data Protection Act and Article 8 of The European Convention on Human Rights which is embedded in the U.K Human Rights Act.

On the 19th February 2007 your system was accessed by Promise Finance/Solutions Ltd and my credit file was downloaded by that firm and copied into hard copy, on the same occasion my partners credit file was downloaded and copied, neither of us had any knowledge of this and there is no record of any search on either of our credit files.
These files were then joined together by the copier, added notes were applied by copier, this joint file was then passed on to Swift Advances plc.

All this without our knowledge and it appears without the knowledge of Equifax Ltd.

On the 22nd March 2007 at 10: 04:57 am precisely Swift Advances plc accessed your system in the same manner and also copied both my credit file and my partners.
Swift Advances plc has denied accessing your system and copying these files to your Kathryn Keogh.

Of course she has taken Swift Advances plc ( your clients who pay you well for your services) word above our word despite us having absolute prima fascia evidence of this.
The reason for this is that we “common” people are regarded by organisations such as Swift Advances plc and “others” as complete idiots to whom “lipservice” must be paid in any complaint.

I have made the ICO case worker who is investigation a complaint about Swift Advances plc aware of this latest serious development, I am also preparing a chronology to send to every media outlet as possible, it is of massive public importance that the flaws in your system are made public, I am arranging an appointment with my MP Mr Andrew Miller who was one of the MP’s involved in the drafting the DPA 1998 with the First Information Commissioner Elizabeth France.

I am certain he will be most concerned about all this.
I can be contacted on telephone number should you wish to contact me, to discuss this issue. I did try to speak with the Compliance department of Swift Advances plc, to ask questions as to why and how they did this, they refuse to talk to me.

I would suggest to you that Swift Advances plc have copied every single one of their customers credit files and you have no record or knowledge of it all, so much for protecting data subjects information and data.

I have made the ICO aware of this also.

Yours sincerely

Sparkie

[Sparkie1723]

Re: Swift Advances plc & CRA's

JUst had this letter from Equifax head office London ...this is where their legal department is.........I have copied it in word and added my comments.......tried to get hold of mr Simpson but he is constantly on the phone,,,will keep trying......ready to blast him out of his chair..

Sparkie

Mr “SPARKIE”
Address

Dear Mr Sparkie,
Your email of 3rd November 2011 addressed to Mr Shawn Holtzclaw has, in light of its content, been referred for my attention.

I have reviewed all of the details relating to your long standing grievance and advise you that I can find no evidence to support your bare assertions of purported breach of our security systems, or supposed covert invasion of your privacy.
Of Course he can’t find any evidence because our files were accessed by an unrecorded search, I have copies of our latest credit files which recorded every search made by various people and institutions, since November 2005, there is no record of any searches by Promise Finance Ltd 15th Feb 2007 nor Swift Advances plc 22nd March 2007


You consented to a search of your credit file by the original broker, Promise Finance Ltd and disclosure of these details to other lenders and credit brokers. Swift Advances Pic obtained such details on that basis. Both entities acted entirely within that authority and undertook searches within our systems on an entirely legitimate basis.
How does he know we consented to the search by Promise when they went bust in April 2008. IN any event our files were copied by Promise Solutions Ltd not Promise Finance Ltd .............Promise Solution s passed it on to Promise Finance.
So He has his system " messed up" again.
We did of course consent to the searches ( but not by Promise Solutions Ltd) which if they had been just “searches” would I would imagine, have been recorded the same as all other searches, but we did not consent to our files being downloaded and copied in to hard copy and kept for 2 years, ................because it was known it was a criminal offence to copy files as sensitive as credit files are ................they were deliberately searched by an unrecorded search method so that they could be copied

Should you still maintain the assertion of mis-use of your personal data, I suggest you take up the matter further with the aforementioned entities.
Equifax allowed all this they must answer also, they are one of these entities he speaks of
Yours sincerely,
Phillip Simpson UK General Counsel For and on behalf of Equifax Limited.
INFORM > ENRICH > EMPOWER

Mr Simpson is now in a meeting all afternoon

[labman]

Re: Swift Advances plc & CRA's

Hi,

Forgive me if this has been said, or should have been mentioned ages ago - I've only as yet scanned briefly this fascinating thread.

Usually the liability for the information held by a CRA is a joint one with the organisation providing the data. Both will argue it is the others responsibility. Both should have data controllers as both are processing data.

As for Swift Advances, that is positively disgusting. IF it turns out to be true they hold no CCL and have no registered Data Controller, then this is extremely serious. They cannot opt out of the law and put the onus on others by putting a phrase in their T&C's.

I'm currently having exactly this argument re my post on Car Insurance - they say they're covered because they are not exceeding FSA guidelines; I'm saying that whether or not they are exceeding FSA guidelines, and whatever their T&C's contain, they cannot get people to sign away their statutory rights under the DPA.

[Sparkie1723]

Re: Swift Advances plc & CRA's

Hi,

Forgive me if this has been said, or should have been mentioned ages ago - I've only as yet scanned briefly this fascinating thread.

Usually the liability for the information held by a CRA is a joint one with the organisation providing the data. Both will argue it is the others responsibility. Both should have data controllers as both are processing data.

As for Swift Advances, that is positively disgusting. IF it turns out to be true they hold no CCL and have no registered Data Controller, then this is extremely serious. They cannot opt out of the law and put the onus on others by putting a phrase in their T&C's.

I'm currently having exactly this argument re my post on Car Insurance - they say they're covered because they are not exceeding FSA guidelines; I'm saying that whether or not they are exceeding FSA guidelines, and whatever their T&C's contain, they cannot get people to sign away their statutory rights under the DPA.

Hi labman,
This is not about licences .......this is about unlawful copying into hard copy data subjects files without consent and without the searches under which they are copied being recorded, ........it is a Criminal Offence

Sparkie

[Sparkie1723]

Re: Swift Advances plc & CRA's

Eqeuifax have written to my partner to say that Swift have not responded to their equiry about the entry on her cedit file being incorrect .........so they have removed the entry by " Swift Group(I) as of 4/11/2011 from her file.

As I have said EVERYONE should raise a dispute with Equifax saying that the entry is incorrect as they do not have a credit agreement with SWIFT GROUP(I)........in the least it cause more work for Equifax and more for Swift and the entry on your file could be removed......the more WORK overload that SWIFT are put under the more mistakes they wil make .......trust me on that .

Sparkie

Sparkie

[Sparkie1723]

Re: Swift Advances plc & CRA's

SDAR to EQuifx Gone off Today
Sparkie

Date 16th April 2011
To
The Data Controller or Data Compliance Officer
Equifax Credit File Advice Centre
P.O. Box 1140
Bradford
BD1 5US

RECORDED DELIVERY
IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ CAREFULLY
Dear Sir or Madam,

Ref; Credit File Account No 05004937

DATA PROTECTION ACT 1998 SUBJECT ACCESS REQUEST
This Subject Data Access Request is made under sections 7, 8 & 9 of the Data Protection Act 1998, and by virtue of the Data Protection (Subject Access) ( Fees and Miscellaneous Provisions)
Regulations 2000 ( S.I.No 191).

The information requested, whilst not exhaustive is as follows:


• Details of the identity of any individuals or organisations who have provided you with personal information about me together with copies of any letters of instruction provided by them, or any contracts entered into between yourselves and the third party, and the relevant dates to which those contracts related.


• Copies of all documents which include any of my personal information including copies of any contracts or invoices, emails or computer records containing my personal information, or any records which pertain to this information.


• Full details and copies of any documents upon which you relied when you have provided my personal or financial information to any individual, organisation or third party.


• Full copies or transcripts of any computer logs or database records kept in relation to ourselves or in relation to our financial or personal information.


• Full copies of any correspondence in postal, email or any other format which you have entered into with any individual, organisation or third party which contains my personal or financial information, or which pertains to us.


• Details of all systems you currently have in place to ensure my personal or financial information is kept securely, including details of those officers who currently have control of same, and at the time it was held or provided to a third party.


• Where any previous information or records held have been deleted or disposed of, the methods used to do so, including dates, certificates or references confirming details of destruction. Where you are unable to provide such certificates, please provide a declaration, signed by an authorised officer of your company, confirming the dates and methods of destruction of this data.

• Full hard copy print outs of any of my personal or financial information held in a digital, magnetic or any other format which is held in any archives, backups or other storage devices / locations.

Where reference to emails is given above, these emails should be taken from your email servers or backups / archives held in a magnetic or digital format. These emails may not be present on a user’s local system, and may require the assistance of your IT department / IT providers, who
you should contact immediately for their provision.

Please confirm whether you hold a physical file with details of my personal and / or financial information. If so,

1. Please provide details and dates of any instance when this file has left your control, to whom it has been communicated, the method of transportation / communication e.g. Royal Mail, courier, by hand, electronically.

2. Please provide a full copy of this file where our physical file has left your offices, please provide details of any precautions taken to ensure that our information has not been lost, misplaced or made available to anybody who does not have authorised access, including those who would use our information for the purposes of identity theft, or registered with any credit agencies.

3. Please also confirm whether any of the documents held within the physical file are computer generated.

Under S.40 of The Administration of Justice Act 1970,
If you believe or aware that you have provided or have been provided with information from/to any organisation, agent, or individual who could, or may have used it for unlawful purposes, you should contact me immediately, and provide full details of their identification and address, together with full details of any instructions you have provided to them. If you have forwarded or communicated my personal or financial information to any person, company, or organisation, please provide a copy of the authority, signed and dated by ourselves upon which you have relied prior to doing so. As requested above, you should provide copies on any such communications.

Under the Data Protection Act 1984 / 1998, as a Data Controller, you are responsible for the complete retraction of all information unlawfully provided to any third party, should I request you to do so, and have a duty to us to ensure that any personal or financial information I have provided to you is kept securely, and is only communicated to those to whom I have given my express permission / authority.

If you are unable or do not intend supplying us with any information I require you to advise me at your earliest convenience in order that I may give consideration to my responses.

In complying with both the Data Protection Act you are permitted to charge a maximum fee of £10 and that payment is enclosed by Cheque No , you are reminded that the Subject Access Request must be provided within 40 days of the date this recorded letter was sent.

Specific information requested;
Full and complete copies of all records of All correspondence, transcripts of phone calls, copies of E-mails and all other manner of correspondence between Swift Advances plc and the following employees of Equifax Ltd, Kathryn Keogh and Mandy Russell along with any other
employee who made contact with said company

You are also reminded that the ICO state that whilst the maximum limit for compliance is 40 days Data Controllers should not use this as a guide for compliance and should whenever possible provide the information as soon as possible. If you do await the 40 day limit it may be found that you have not complied in supplying the information we require. In which case there would be insufficient time left for you to comply causing you to be guilty of an offence

Non-compliance with this request is a criminal offence under the above Acts and will result in a report being submitted to the relevant statutory authorities.

Under the Data Protection Act 1998, Data Controllers must be fully aware of and comply with all other relevant statutes, laws and regulations in force at the time of an SDAR, therefore, this request is also made in conjunction with Section 3 of The New Fraud Act 2006, and The European Convention on Human Rights specifically Article 8.


I await hearing from you.

Yours faithfully

[Sparkie1723]

Re: Swift Advances plc & CRA's

Another Swift Advances plc customer has come forward, who has had their credit fille physically copied into hard copy.........again adding strength to my claim that they copy every customers report.......this one again copied without consent and without Equifax knowing anything about it.

Sparkie

[Sparkie1723]

Re: Swift Advances plc & CRA's

This shows that "Swift" carried out a search on 22nd March 2007 at 10.00 am...............Equifax have no record of this search.......................it took Swift 4 minutes to download and copy into hard copy our credit files .....my partners report also shows no record of any search being carried out on her file they kept these copied files for at least 2 years in Arcadia House and more than likely still have them, along with every customers.

Sparkie

[Sparkie1723]

Re: Swift Advances plc & CRA's

Just building up our Claim against Equifax…..The Claim against “Swift” will be similar

Chronology of Facts Equifax

1…..On 15th February 2007 we gave Promise Finance Ltd a Credit Brokerage company based in Wolverhampton Company Registration Number 04651036, a Data Protection Fair Processing Notice authority to carry out a credit search of our credit files.

2….On this date above a search was carried out by Promise Solutions Ltd Company registration Number 04822774, a totally separate independent company we did not give this company authority to search our credit files.

3….Promise Solutions Ltd not only accessed our credit files held by Equifax Ltd Credit Reference Agency on that date, but downloaded a full copy of the credit file report of Mr X and Mrs X, joined these two file reports together as one file report, added various notes and entries, applied a Promise Solutions Ltd Official Stamp then passed the complete file onto Promise Finance Limited.

4….On receiving this file report Promise Finance Ltd then passed this file report on to Swift Advances plc. It appears that this was done on 22nd March 2007, this cannot be verified for reason Swift Advances plc will not confirm this fact, and have even attempted to deny that they received said report files, however this cannot be denied as it was Swift Advances plc who presented this very file report in a Court proceedings bundle prepared by Swift Advances plc in November 2008.

5….Both Mr X & Mrs X having obtained their Credit File Reports from Equifax Ltd ( CRA) note that there are no records of a search on their files made by either Promise Solutions Ltd nor Promise Finance Ltd. on the date stated above Equifax Ltd have confirmed that they have no record of said searches, by which both credit file reports were copied, and were unaware that they had been copied.

6….Equifax have been made aware of all above issues from the Chief Executive Officer of Equifax Ltd Mr Shawn Holtzclaw, a Mr Phillip Simpson of the UK General Counsel of Equifax Ltd, a Kathryn McKeogh Head of Customer Relations, to a Mandy Russell a Customer Service Advisor of Equifax Ltd, and other Customer Service Advisors.

7….It is abundantly clear that neither Mr X nor Mrs X, gave the specific written permission required to either Promise Solutions Ltd or Promise Finance Ltd for their credit file reports to be copied into hard copy and alterations to be made to those said reports, prior to the passing of same said files on to Swift Advances plc by unknown means.

8….It is also abundantly clear that as Equifax Ltd have no record or knowledge of how and when these files were extracted from their data base without their knowledge, Equifax have no security against this type of intrusion occurring at any time at the convenience of any of their “Clients” and ease by which this is done. It seems that it is a common practice by their “ Clients”.

9….Having brought all the above to the attention of Equifax Ltd, the steps taken to investigate my complaints and all the issues surrounding them, have been off hand, and in my opinion an attempt to “ Cover Up” these intrusions.

10…The re-action of Equifax Ltd is to deny all happenings and not to accept any responsibility, this stance cannot be accepted under any circumstances Equifax Ltd have a legal duty to protect all data subjects information, this cannot be construed as anything but absolute professional negligence and a failure of their duty to protect such information.

11…Equifax Ltd have accepted unsupported explanations by “Swift Group??” in attempting to shift all blame for the above to the now dissolved company, Promise Finance Ltd, against prima fascia documentary evidence supplied to the contrary.


Sparkie