Identity theft and fraud - unravelling a credit report

[Guest]

My potential son-in-law is the victim of identity theft and fraud by his own brother (warning - Experian say how easy it is for a same-sex family member to do this). His credit rating is horrendous, mainly because of CCJ's that he did not know about, some paid, others not paid. Because of his distress and because both he and my daughter work full-time, I am pulling his credit report to bits, and generally identifying matters that he can then report to Action Fraud and to Experian (who say they can help).

The credit report shows a pattern - a firm making perhaps four or more enquiry footprints on the same date through one credit agency then, on the same date, an audit footprint from the same firm but via another credit agency. In some cases the enquiry footprints all show the same current address whilst the audit footprint shows an old address ( even recently showing the guilty brother's address).

I would be grateful if someone can explain the process in applying for a loan or credit card - does the loan company make a general enquiry to a credit agency, if then satisfied that the person is who they say they are would the loan company then go to the audit stage to ensure the person is financially viable and can make payments, and how (in the case of fraud and in the absence of correspondence or a telephone call) would the named person know that a loan or credit card had been approved?

On the basis of available information, it looks like the brother who has stolen son-in-law's identity has made approaches over the last three years to as many as 30 firms. I'm trying to find out which firms have given out loans or credit cards in son-in-laws name.

Thank you.

[Amethyst]

If there are searches on the file they will be marked as to whether they are just soft searches or actual application checking. There will also be lots of searches from things like insurance comparison sites and what not ( things like Madison ( 118118 ) which sounds terrible but is actually just an ID search when accessing a credit file or comparing insurance quotes etc )

Which credit files sites are you using?

Clearscore split them up nicely into Application searches and quotation searches. It's only the Application searches you want to worry about.

Example Clearscore ..



Then there's CreditKarma.... MSE Credit Club ... Totally Money .... they cover all three credit reference files Experian, Equifax and Transunion(callcredit).

So I'd go through and see which are actually Application searches which should narrow down who you need to contact.
Also if an application is approved then the debt will/should show on the main credit part of the credit file. Not all lenders report to all the credit reference agencies, and some don't report at all.


To protect him in future he could get CIFAS protection on his credit file. This will mean lenders know to do additional checks before agreeing credit applications in future.

Might be worth looking in to - https://www.cifas.org.uk/services/id...e-registration

[Guest]

Thank you, this is a big help.

They obtained two credit reports - one from Experian and the other is a multi agency report from Checkmyfile. Both are helpful in their own way but contain different kinds of information. The Checkmyfile report is useful because it shows what addresses the enquiries and audit searches were made from - and in some recent instances enquiries were made from the correct current address whilst the audit search was made using an address he left more than nine years previously.

I didn't know Clearscore is an actual credit agency - a firm called Clearscore (Clearscore Technology?) is one of the firms that have done multiple searches via Experian and Equifax.

I will ask them to obtain the Clearscore report you have suggested.

[Amethyst]

Clearscore, CreditKarma and MSE credit Club etc are 'access' websites that are funded through comparison of loans and credit cards etc that give free and immediate access to the three credit reference agencies - Equifax, Experian and TransUnion (Callcredit).

I haven't tried checkmyfile so not sure how they list things.

[Guest]

They have tried to register with Clearscore but there is already an account in boyfriends name - looks like his brother got there first!!

You have helpfully provided other places that they can try.

For info, Checkmyfile came from that Martin Lewis money place. The file is quite in depth - gives the name of the Credit Agency, which loan company or bank etc made the search, date, name and address of person being searched for. One section details initial enquiries, then a section details audits (which I take to be loan/credit card applications but doesn't say so) so you can compare the enquiries and audits all made on the same day and see that on any specific day, someone was searching around for who will lend money. You can also see that some enquiries were made without proceeding to further audits being generated and there is nothing to say they actually lent money yet these firms are the same firms who took out CCJ's. Between Oct 2017 and September 2019 boyfriend's Checkmyfile report is 40 pages long - what's missing is what the searches and audits were actually for.

Thanks again for your help.