Class Action Claims Equifax Matches Consumers’ Social Security Numbers with Deceased Individuals

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A Glendale, Arizona resident alleges Equifax Information Services has unlawfully associated her Social Security number with a deceased individual and as a result included inaccurate information in her credit report.

According to the 13-page proposed class action, Equifax blindly relies on a third-party vendor to obtain Social Security information and “makes no effort to verify the information’s veracity before including it in a consumer’s credit file.” The suit claims that although Equifax has known for years that its procedures and algorithms often mismatch consumers’ Social Security numbers, particularly those of people with traditionally ethnic last names, the credit reporting agency has intentionally failed to address the problem so as to avoid the burden of investigating the information itself.

“Upon information and belief, Equifax knowingly maintains unreasonable and deficient procedures to avoid the expense of independently verifying the social security information it receives from third-party vendors,” the complaint alleges. “Moreover, Defendant unreasonably opts for consumers to undergo the onerous and unjustified verification of their identity through the SSA to avoid conducting a reasonable investigation of the information itself.”

The case alleges Equifax has violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by failing to maintain reasonable procedures to ensure the maximum accuracy of the information it reports and taking instead what the suit calls the “wholly unreasonable” approach of shifting that burden to consumers.

The plaintiff says she obtained her credit report from Equifax sometime in November 2019 and learned that the defendant was inaccurately reporting a Commonwealth Financial Systems collection account with a balance of $1,800. In response to the plaintiff’s dispute of the allegedly inaccurate information, Equifax sent the woman a letter indicating that the agency had received her dispute notice and that the Social Security Administration (SSA) had supposedly associated the woman’s Social Security number with a deceased individual, the suit relays.

Per the case, Equifax instructed the plaintiff to contact the SSA and send the credit reporter a “Report of Confidential Social Security Benefit Information” to clarify her “current status.”

The case argues that Equifax had “no reliable information” on which to form its belief that the plaintiff’s Social Security number was associated with a deceased person. Instead of verifying the information itself, Equifax relied on third-party details it knew may be inaccurate and placed the burden of disproving the information squarely on the plaintiff, the lawsuit charges.

“Instead of maintaining reasonable procedures to ensure that the social security information Equifax purchases is accurate before including it in consumer reports that it sells for a profit, Equifax expects individual consumers to personally contact the SSA to verify that they are not, in fact, dead,” the complaint reads. “Thereafter, Defendant Equifax asks the consumer to provide a confidential report from the SSA, which includes information that Equifax is not entitled to, to prove that their social security number belongs to a living person.”

The plaintiff says that when she reached out to the SSA, she was informed by the agency that “there was no record indicating that her social security number was associated with a deceased person,” and that Equifax had made a “human error.” Per the case, the error was the result of Equifax’s “loose matching algorithms” that frequently combine information from different consumers and often result in the matching of a living person’s personal information with that of a deceased individual.

The issue is particularly common among those who immigrated to the U.S. and/or received Social Security numbers around 2011, the suit alleges, claiming Equifax has known of this problem “for years.” According to the case, Equifax has been “sued repeatedly” for allegedly reporting inaccurate Social Security information provided by its third-party vendor.

The plaintiff alleges Equifax irresponsibly and unlawfully sold her credit report to customers without asking them to provide her Social Security number, verifying that her Social Security number belonged to a living person, or while reporting that her Social Security number belonged to a deceased individual. Per the case, the plaintiff was denied credit—including a credit card and a student loan—due to the inaccurate information contained in her consumer report.

The lawsuit aims to cover anyone in the U.S. who, within the five years preceding the date of class certification, was the subject of a consumer report, sent a dispute to Equifax about an inaccurate item in their credit report, was asked by Equifax to contact the Social Security Administration to verify that their Social Security number belonged to a living person, and was told to provide a “Report of Confidential Social Security Benefits” as proof.

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