Fla. Plaintiff Sues Credit Reporting Agencies, Verizon, Alleging Fraudulent Reports

Equifax, Experian and TransUnion credit reporting agencies continue to report fraudulent accounts of Orange County, Florida, resident Rebecca Kineman despite her efforts to have the fraudulent accounts corrected and removed, said a Friday complaint (docket 6:23-cv-01437) in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Orlando. The lawsuit against the three credit reporting agencies, Verizon Wireless and Fair Collections & Outsourcing (FCO) alleges negligence and violation of the Fair Credit Reporting and Fair Debt Collection Practices acts. Kineman is alleged to owe a debt to Verizon for an account she never applied for, said the complaint, saying Verizon furnished inaccurate information about her to the agencies. FCO also furnished inaccurate information about her to the CRAs about an apartment lease she never applied for, it said. Due to the false reports, Kineman was denied a loan she applied for early this year. When she obtained copies of her credit reports in April with fraudulent information, she found the Verizon account in her name had a “closed” and "in collection" status with all the CRAs with a balance of $1,656; the “inaccurate and fraudulent” FCO account was reported by Experian and TransUnion with a status of “collection” and a balance of $59,195, it said. Kineman contacted the CRAs April 20 about the fraudulent accounts, attributing the reports to either a “mixed file or identity theft.” Experian notified Verizon and FCO of Kineman’s dispute but none of the companies did a “reasonable investigation and merely compared their own erroneous data to that provided by Experian in connection with the dispute investigation,” the complaint said. The CRAs never tried to contact Kineman during the investigation and didn’t perform independent investigations, it said. Due to “inaccurate credit reporting,” Kineman lost money and time attempting to fix her credit, experienced a reduction in her credit score and suffered mental anguish, stress, aggravation, embarrassment and “sleepless nights” due to defendants’ “reluctance to fix the errors,” the complaint said. She seeks statutory, compensatory, actual, and punitive damages, attorneys’ fees and costs, and pre- and post-judgment interest.