Message to Brian “SmithWithClass"

brian4

Dear Brian,

Thanks for replying to me on Twitter. Hopefully, this page and the next will explain the issue I seem to be having with the Credit Reference Agency, Equifax, which is one of the three agencies used here in the UK.

I joined for free after they were hacked, just to see if there were any problems. I’m glad I did because there were two credit entries that were not me! These are now removed. 

However, the report also has a section called “Social Media Footprint”.

When I run a search and look at the results, I get a page with:

Facebook
Flickr
Foursquare
GooglePlus
Klout
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Twitter 
Vimeo

To my surprise, several of the entries are not me and the info at the top shows my location as Forest Heights, Kitchener, ON, Canada. Given that Equifax has my full address, most of my bank account details and records of my credit history, I couldn’t see how their system could post such obviously incorrect information.

It’s probably not that big a deal in the overall scale of things - but the entries are not me so I’ve been trying to get some sense out of Equifax. It’s like trying to get blood out of a stone! Eventually I got an actual answer which simply said that any entry which is not me is because other people are using my email address.

This is a puzzle.

Apart from Twitter, none of the entries seem to have allowed me to make contact with the other person. For example, Foursquare has a user number but I couldn’t find a way to make contact. The username is “smithwithclass” (brilliant name by the way!), so it’s probably you.

Facebook is “smithbrian” and I’m guessing is someone else altogether.

GooglePlus is “smithwithmoreclass”. It could be you? Or not? You see my problem.

Klout could be anyone using my email address . . . or it could be me (except that Klout is the only one I'd never heard of!)

LinkedIn is me !!

Pinterest might be you.

As for Vimeo. Who knows?

The next page shows what I can see when I’m logged in to Equifax. I made it by taking screenshots so the links don’t work but at least you can see what I’m looking at.

I’d be very grateful for any thoughts you may have. Are some of these entries you? Could it be that we both have managed to acquire the same email address or is there a system error somewhere? What do you think?

Do you have credit reference agencies in Canada, and do you have other people on your report?

If you can spare a moment, do please let me know what you think. If you want any more info, give me a shout at brian@briansmithonline.com or on the contact page or via Twitter @Brian_smith.


Next Page: “My Social Media Report”

© Brian Smith 2015