I was told that one of the best ways of limiting the possibility of two peoples' records being meshed together was to use first, middle, and last name on all documents. That clearly is moot here and whoever Hipolito is, If she wants to run a check or anything might find a Kathy and it may be easier for her to find the OP.

I've got this issue with getting my credit report - the mortgage I never took out problem. I have my first, middle, and last name on all documents; however, I suspect that the problem revolves around the fact that there's a guy who lives in the same town I do with the same first, middle, and last name (no relationship to me). Any advice on how to deal with that would be greatly appreciated.

Ultimately these records are coming from database companies such as Lexus Nexus.

@pecan 3.14159265: Hasn't really helped. While my wife was in college another student from the same state had an identical name except for the middle initial (K vs C). They both had student loans too. It looks like someone in the loan office got them mixed up and now her credit report has multiple residences throughout the mid-Atlantic, credit cards that don't belong to her, and two social security numbers. The agencies still haven't fixed it.

I am fairly certain that the most commonly used company for these identity questions is Lexis-Nexis. They collect public records and compile them for easy access for those willing to pay. For example: You want to board an aircraft without ID, they will use the Lexis-Nexis service to generate three questions about who you are to make sure the proper person is being let onto the plain.

Check out their website: [www.lexisnexis.com]

My last name is specific to the area in South Carolina in which I grew up. Thanks to Google, Facebook, and my nephew's yearbooks, I know that there are at least three other women out there with my same first and last name, one of whom has my same middle name as well. And at least one of them is a deadbeat, as I discovered when I got an irate call from a collections agency about a SC-based loan that was default. Clearly, he'd just done a nationwide search of phone numbers listed to anyone with that name.

Luckily, I'm quite a bit older than all of my doppelgangers, but I still check my credit reports religiously.

Don't just talk to Equifax. The erroneous info might be on Experian or Transunion's reports.

Those "Authentications" are done by Lexis Nexis, Call them, tell them you want all connections about you completely removed from their data base. They keep giving me crap about cars I supposedly owned, but none of them are correct. They claim it's from the DMV but I've never owned any of the ones they keep listing.

You can start by filing formal disputes with all three credit reporting agencies and when you do these disputes do not just fill in the blanks on the standard print out from the agency site....hand write clearly in blue ink on yellow lined legal size paper your complete situation and include documentation for the accounts that do actually belong to you, verification of current and prior addresses etc. hand writing it on legal paper forces them to send it to another area of the department where someone will actually have to read your response and make a descision based on the information you've provided. be clear and accurate and be sure to include what you expect from your dispute filing ie; you expect that all records not belonging to you be reported to the proper owner and that your credit file only show credit and history that belongs to you as it rightfuly should...

@Andrew Briscoe: That would be LexisNexis. Lexus is a car company

@hunter3742: I was recently asked about a mortgage I never took out while looking at my credit report. After staring at the screen for a few minutes I answered that none of the names listed held my mortgage that I didn't have. Apparently that was the right, though confusing, answer. Have you tried the none of the above approach?

As noted above, mostly likely the information came from a LexisNexis search, however, if the company you are applying for a loan with doesn't want to disclose who they use, ask them if the have a written privacy policy. If they do, ask them to send you a copy.

Most companies who use these types of searchs also disclose information about you to the same sources. If the company you are trying to do business with has a privacy policy, most likely it has a clause that allows you to ask for who they disclose information to. You can then begin by asking for that information and then contacting those companies to see about clearing up your records.

@hunter3742: Simple: kill him and assume his wife, car, kids, house and all belongings. It's not like as if anybody can prove you aren't the same person without... fixing the records.

I actually had this happen despite having a very uncommon last name. For whatever reason back in 2000 information for me kept getting mixed up with some guy in south jersey. Took me years of rectifying with the 3 agencies and the state even though it didn't particularly effect me one way or another.

The wackiest one was where I opened a credit card and closed it a week later. THAT was fun to get removed.

Had a similar, but far less life troubling experience with Radio Shack back in the day when they wanted everyone's postal code and name.

Guess what? Someone in my town had the EXACT SAME NAME as me. Everytime I'd buy something at Radio Shack I'd give them my postal code and name (I know I could have avoided it, but it became a game!). The wrong record would come up and they'd then have to erase the record in there and put in my postal code instead (yeah, I don't know why either, but it happened religiously when I gave my name). I wonder how many times my name came up in exception reports... :D

This went on until the other guy either gave up or left town, because eventually I didn't have to go past the name part of the questions. And then, about a year later or so, Radio Shack gave up asking the questions (And a couple of years after that went bust and was bought by Circuit City, and the shell of the company is now owned by, of all people, Bell Canada).

The worst of it all is my last name isn't even all that common of a spelling (although MINE is the one in the dictionary) although it is a perfectly common english word. There's 10 people with my spelling in town, and about 100 with it spelled wrong. It is fun, though, to watch my wife now have do what I have to do every time I'm on the phone: Spell a simple english word, letter by letter, 4 or more times to get the agent to avoid using their (bad) spelling. In person, I just hand them my CC and tell them to copy it off that (And even then I've had my name appear improperly on bills, seriously).

I really hate to say this but most likely if OP is hispanic then an illegal alien has been using her social security number. I would know as this happened to me before. I had collections billsfrom various services in Gerogia ( I live in NC). Turns out an illegal alien had been working with my social security number for the last two years. He even got DirectTv, home phone service and home electric service with it. Don't even bother trying to get the social security adminstration for help.They are totally useless when it comes to these types of things, I had to learn this the hard way. I ended up driving to Georgia and I went to the address Directtv had onfile as the service address. I even showed up at this person's employer, they only talked to me because I brought the a local police detective. Alas, I was to late he was tipped off I was coming and took off back to Mexico. Before anybody jumps in and says it was identity theft, it was't. This guy was using my social security number with his name. The unbeliveable part is he worked at large multinational company and got alot of services with my social yet it didn't match his name. Directtv wouldn't admit he gave them my social until I threatened legal action. The problem is if some is using your social for basic services pulling a credit report does not help unless they go into collections.

@shepd: I'm guessing Shepherd vs. Shepard from your username? That must be annoying. :)

@mariospants: That should be the plot of a movie.

@chgoeditor: As far as I can tell no one actually uses Experian or TransUnion.

...Not that she shouldn't check with them anyway, just in case.

@Veeber: Somebody at my health care network has the same names and birthdate as me. The birthyear is different, but the different digits are a 2 for me and 7 for her, so they look alike if you look fast.

So far, mixups have been minor, but I've asked for a note to be put into both her and my files to double-check ID because of the similarity.

Have you gone to your local police department and filed a report with them?

While it is unclear if identity theft took place, you can remind the police that you have suffered damages (being unable to get a loan), and ask them to treat it as a case of identity theft.

Good luck!

@Rectilinear Propagation: kind of sounds like the net...force people to kill themselves, take over everything....you know...b

@pecan 3.14159265: Not everyone (me!) has a middle name. Thankfully my first+last name combo is pretty uncommon.

@Rectilinear Propagation: Ahnold did something similar, about a man who was cloned, and... well, you get the idea. Much shooting was involved.

@Daniel Goniea: So your saying for a price I can have personal data on anyone I want and then board an aircraft as them just by knowing that data. Yep, no way there could ever be a problem with that kind of system.

@Snakeophelia: "And at least one of them is a deadbeat"

Yes, because clearly, when someone defaults on a loan, they are automatically a deadbeat.

This is probably an illegal immigrant. Almost sure it is in your SSN records and your "secondary" credit report.

First off as a Hispanic American (family from South America) I can tell you the HIPOLITO name is a male name. Secondly I bet your poster is Latin and/or has a Latin last name. Thus someone has been tied into their records. This is going to cause her problems. She will need to report to SSN that someone is using her SSN.

Good Luck,
Rick

I am more curious as to what kind of a "great" rate she managed to get from a site called up2drive?

Ah something I deal with on a daily basis for work... yay.
There are 2 ways this could happen one is Lexis Nexis gets it on there due to a name similarity and the other is that the bureaus actually have a mixed file for the person.

Step 1: Do a consumer dispute on it.
Step 2: If it doesn't come off call the court and get the initial complaint and satisfaction if it is one.
Step 3: Call the Exec Customer Service #s here and talk to them and provide them documentation.

For merged files you need to have the bureaus Standardize your info:
TU: 714-738-3800 x 8800
EFX: 800-965-9653
XPN: Pull from annualcreditreport.com and call the number for XPN on that report.

@rick_in_texas: Uuuh, did you miss everyone above saying that this is a really common problem? Just because someone has a Hispanic name and their records are being confused with someone else's doesn't mean they are an illegal immigrant.

@Blueskylaw: A quick google search shows that they are legit and there are no obvious bad reviews, at least on the first page.

@Veeber:

Look at my post below. She's got a mixed file. I've provided phone numbers to call and have the bureaus standardize her file.

@LiquidGravity:

You should see the scary tools and info they have on Accurint... LexisNexis's main product is just the tip of the iceberg.

Give [www.pipl.com] a shot. They search the deep stuff, so it's possible you might get a hit for where this other person actually is and, who knows, you can contact her.

@nakedscience:

Hence the reason I said PROBABLY. I don't know for sure. It has happened to me (My real name is RICARDO).

Please read before commenting.

@rick_in_texas:

Sorry Rick. This doesn't mean her SSN is being used. The bureaus don't need a SSN match to put anything on your credit. They can use name and geographic matches for many items which is why stuff like this happens.

@nakedscience: I guess not, Mr. Science. I don't think I'd name a kid "Naked".

@Rectilinear Propagation: if by "no one" you mean "virtually everyone", then i guess no one uses them.

Why don't we employ the Consumerist Hive Mind and track down this Hipolito for the OP? Who's got a few hours of work they can put off and do this?

Equifax recently decided to give me a middle name. I don't have one. I have to prove it to them that I don't have one instead of them actually looking at more than 20 years of records on their end showing I don't have a middle name.
Record keepers in this society are basically lazy b******s.

I couldn't get my credit report for a long time because I had moved so often as student that I couldn't figure out what my previous address was in the credit bureau's reporting. Even after I figured out what addresses they had on file, they kept asking me questions about my father's mortgage in the security questions because one of my addresses was his.

It took waiting until I had enough of my own credit history and a few years in apartments of my own for me to know the answers to the security questions. This was particularly annoying when I saw my landlord run the report in 5 seconds on his office computer without having to answer any security questions at all. Luckily, I wound up having good credit despite never having been able to look at my report.

check out innovis. --> [www.innovis.com]

this is the "super secret" 4th bureau. you are entitled to a report from them, but notice how you can't order one online - you have to print out a form & request it via mail.

why is innovis important? they are the primary repository for freddie mac/fannie mae/sallie mae, delinquent debts to the feds & public records. information from innovis actually bleeds onto your other 3 reports - this is why sometimes fixing errors with the big 3 doesn't fix them permanently.

here's an article from bankrate that explains a little more about them --> [www.bankrate.com]

& if you're too lazy to click thru, here's the important info:

Innovis became a major player at the beginning of 2001, when mortgage financing titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac began requiring their mortgage servicers to report borrowers' payment histories to the Houston-based credit repository. Fannie Mae requires servicers to notify Innovis of delinquencies and foreclosures; Freddie Mac requires servicers to tell Innovis about every borrower's payment status, current or late.

The federal government reports to Innovis about individuals who are late with debt payments to the feds.

@rick_in_texas: Another potential explanation for Kathy X is that there's another Kathy X, married to Hipolito X, with some similar data point (account with a particular company, possibly even living in a different apartment in the same complex at some point in time, etc.)

@mac-phisto: Interesting. No indication in the Bankrate article as to why Innovis isn't covered under the FCRA yearly free credit report requirement, even though they have potentially the same impact on your life as the "Big Three". Something to write your Congressional reps about, perhaps?

@shepd: I seriously have more trouble with people not understanding Hubby's last name (common four letter English word fercryinoutloud!) than with mine, a seven letter Dutch one. Why? No bloody clue.

@SoCalGNX: Maybe they could give you a middle name to something that would either.

A. Generate income for you: FirstName GoldenPalaceGamblingPlace LastName

or

B. Be offensive to most people. First Name KillandEatBabies Lastname or FirstName CurseWord LastName.

Source of neverending fun...

@mac-phisto: And Certegy is another place that can give you a credit report.

We had a check declined at a national sized tire retailer by Certegy. If you search for Certegy Check Services you will find many complaints about that service.

[www.fidelityinfoservices.com]

They also had an ex-employee busted for id theft and didn't do alot to help afterward:

[www.sptimes.com]

@SoCalGNX:

One of the three agencies decided I was a Jr. even though my first name has never in the history of the world been used as a man's name.

Can't you sue the people who denied you the loan?

Take them to small claims court, and point out that their use of an incompetent and unknown agency has made it more difficult for you to legitmately conduct your business. And point out that they are failing to give you the information you need to correct this problem.

Additionally, call your state Attorney General. On a certain level, this amounts to deceptive business practices. They're making a loan conditional on your ability to provide incorrect and false information to them. It actually doesn't matter if this is intentional, if you can demonstrate that their incompetence amounts to bad faith. And you can show that bad faith by pointing out that the company is NOT giving you the information you need to rectify this situation--they're not even telling you the company they use so you can go after them and fix the problem.

If you take the small claims route, sue everybody for damages. If, for instance, interest rates went up between the time you first applied for the car and when you had to re-apply, you can sue them for that money. As well as, obviously, the time and inconvenience, or any repairs you had to do to your existing car to render it drive-able, the depreciation on your current car, etc. etc. etc.

If a company is denying you credit based on false and inaccurate information, they are materially damaging your ability to do function in society, everything from making purchases at fair rates to even getting a job. We simply can't tolerate this, and we should not have to.