UNITED STATES DISTRICTC OURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OFGE OR GIA ATLANTADIVISION JAN$ 2 20og IAM~BA 7r1' EN , C) BY, HELENABROWN,§ Plaintiff, prose,§ V. § EQUIFAXINFORMATION§ SERVICES,LLC, . § Defendant .§ JUR YT RIAL DEMAND ED' „ L PRELIMINARYSTATEMENT 1 .Thisisanactionfordamagesbroughtbyanindividualconsumeragainst 1 `ORIGINAL FILED l S N~~Ep ' ~r~FFICE CIVILACTIONFILENO : I = Q -9 -- G V - 016 8 C O MPLAI NT COMESNO WthePlaintiff,SelenaBrown(hereinafter"Plaintiff'), prose, and forhercausesofactionagainstDefendantEquifaxInformationServices,LLC (hereinafter"Equifax"),aversasfollows : Equifaxregardinginaccurateentriesonhercreditreportandfor violationsoftheFairCreditReportingAct,15U .S .C .§1681 etseq ., as amended(hereinafter"FCRA") . Case 1:09-cv-00168-CAM-LTW Document 1 Filed 01/22/2009 Page 1 of 19
Lawsuit against Equifax for numerous violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and identity theft involving a rogue employee within Equifax.
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURTNORTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA
ATLANTA DIVISION
JAN $ 2 20ogIAM~B A7r1'EN, C)BY,
HELENA BROWN, §
Plaintiff, pro se, §
V. §
EQUIFAX INFORMATION §SERVICES, LLC, . §
Defendant. §JURY TRIAL DEMANDED'„ L
PRELIMINARY STATEMENT
1 . This is an action for damages brought by an individual consumer against
1
` ORIGINALFILED l
SN~ ~E p '~r~FFICE
CIVIL ACTION FILE NO:
I = Q-9 -- G V - 016 8
COMPLAINT
COMES NOW the Plaintiff, Selena Brown (hereinafter "Plaintiff'), prose, and
for her causes of action against Defendant Equifax Information Services, LLC
(hereinafter "Equifax"), avers as follows :
Equifax regarding inaccurate entries on her credit report and for
violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U .S.C. § 1681 et seq ., as
amended (hereinafter "FCRA") .
Case 1:09-cv-00168-CAM-LTW Document 1 Filed 01/22/2009 Page 1 of 19
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JURISDICTION AND VENUE
2. Federal question jurisdiction of this Court arises under 15 U.S .C. § 1681p
and 28 U.S.C. § 1331 .
3 . Equifax is a for-profit limited liability company, organized, existing and
doing business under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Georgia
with its office and princ ipal place of business located at 1 . 550 Peachtree
Street, N.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30309; therefore venue is proper in the
Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, pursuant to 28 U .S.C . §
1391(b) .
PARTIES
4. Plaintiff is a natural person and is a resident of Cobb County, Georgia.
5. Plaintiff is a "consumer" as defined by the FCRA, 15 U .S.C. § 1681 a(c) .
6. Equifax is a "consumer reporting agency" as defined by the FCRA, 15
U.S .C. § 1681a(f), that engages in the business of maintaining and
reporting consumer credit information .
7. Equifax may be served with process by delivering a copy of the Summons
and Complaint to its registered agent, Kent E. Mast, 1550 Peachtree
Street, N.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30309 .
Case 1:09-cv-00168-CAM-LTW Document 1 Filed 01/22/2009 Page 2 of 19
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FACTUALALLEGATIONS: PART ONE
8. In October 2006 after reviewing her TransUnion and Experian credit
reports Plaintiff discovered her identity had been stolen .
9. Plaintiff has spent over two years and more than $532 trying to bring
closure to this distressing ordeal (Plaintiffs Exhibits A-1 through A-3) .
10. After two years of gathering information and documentation Plaintiff has
deduced that Equifax (a rogue employee) was directly involved with
Plaintiffs identity theft . This is based on e-mails Plaintiff obtained from
the identity thief s e-mail account (which was fraudulently opened under
Plaintiffs name) and numerous inconsistencies that are found only in
Plaintiff s Equifax credit reports .
11 . Plaintiff s TransUnion, Experian and Innovis credit reports correctly
reported fraudulent addresses, names, phone numbers and inquiries
directly related to the identity thief.
12. In stark contrast, Plaintiff s Equifax credit reports, a total of 18 received
between August 2006 -August 2008, reported zero fraudulent addresses,
zero fraudulent names, zero fraudulent phone numbers and only a few
fraudulent inquiries .
Case 1:09-cv-00168-CAM-LTW Document 1 Filed 01/22/2009 Page 3 of 19
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13 . On June 20, 2007, Plaintiff asked Equifax if her credit file contained
mis-merged or mixed files . Equifax said there were no mis-merged or
mixed files in Plaintiffs credit file . Therefore , all ofthe fraudulent
information reported by the other three credit bureaus should have
been reported by Equifax as well .
14. In early 2006 an identity thief using the stolen personal information of a
Georgia woman named Tonia Leach had gained employment at Equifax .
15. Coincidentally, Plaintiffs identity was stolen in 2006 .
16. The identity thief worked at Equifax for almost a full year before the real
Tonia Leach discovered that her identity had been stolen .
17. In May 2007 an Equifax spokesman told WSB-TV/Channel 2 News in
Atlanta that the identity thief did not have access to sensitive information .
18, The identity thief is not available to confirm Equifax's statement because
law enforcement has not been able to locate her.
19. On November 3, 2008, Plaintiff submitted via certified mail a three-page
dispute letter with 51 pages of supporting documentation disputing the
completeness and accuracy of information contained in Plaintiff s credit
file (Plaintiff's Exhibits B-1 through B-4) .
Case 1:09-cv-00168-CAM-LTW Document 1 Filed 01/22/2009 Page 4 of 19
20. On November 12, 2008, Equifax responded with an absurd letter to
Plaintiff requesting additional documentation to process a security freeze
(Plaintiff's Exhibit C) .
21 . . Plaintiffs dispute letter never mentioned a request for a security freeze .
22. Equifax did not conduct a reasonable reinvestigation to determine whether
the disputed information was accurate or complete .
23 . Therefore, in November 2008 Equifax willfully and intentionally violated
15 U.S.C. § 16811 by failing to act as prescribed by federal statute after
receiving notice of a dispute from a consumer .
FACTUALALLEGATIONS: PART TWO
24. On July 12, 2006, at 2 :18 p.m., Plaintiff obtained her annual free credit
report from Equifax via a federally mandated and secure website with
encryption, www.annualcreditreport .com (Plaintiff s Exhibit D) .
25. The online credit report contained no fraudulent information .
26. At 5 : ]. 1 p.m. on that very same day and just three hours after Plaintiffs
initial contact with Equifax, an identity thief called Scana Energy and
opened a fraudulent account for an address in Clarkston, GA (Plaintiff's
Exhibits E-lthrough E-3) .
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Case 1:09-cv-00168-CAM-LTW Document 1 Filed 01/22/2009 Page 5 of 19
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. . . . i
27. Clarkston, GA is located 12 miles east of Equifax's Atlantaa office .
28. On July 13, 2006, the very next day, the identity thief attempted to
re-open a closed account with World Financial Network National Bank
(hereinafter "WFNNB").
29. WFNNB performed a hard inquiry via Equifax and Experian.