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U.S. PIRG Consumer Blog
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November 17, 2006
Florida Investigating Freecreditreport.com, says MSNBC
According to reporter Bob Sullivan of MSNBC's Red Tape Chronicles, Florida's attorney general (and governor-elect) Charlie Crist is looking into Freecreditreport.com, a subsidiary of Experian. Just last year, the FTC dinged Experian $950,000 for deceiving consumers through the practices of its various subsidiaries including Freecreditreport.com, where consumers are first scared about identity theft then allegedly tricked into purchasing over-priced credit monitoring services. PIRG recommends-- look at your free annual credit reports (required by law); there's no need to purchase credit monitoring. And, if you are tricked into purchasing credit monitoring with the promise that it is "free", complain to the FTC and to your own state attorney general. From Bob's post:
The investigation will cover several entities owned by Experian, including Consumerinfo.com, Inc., Experian Consumer Direct; Qspace, Inc.; Iplace, Inc.; and the Web sites Consumerinfo.com; Creditexpert.com; and Creditmatters.com.
The inquiry will examine allegations of the firm's "failure to adequately disclose negative option enrollment ... deceptive advertising, misleading domain name, and failure to honor cancellations," the agency says on its Web site. The investigtation involves a potential civil -- not a criminal -- case, and the opening of the investigation does not constitute proof of wrongdoing.
Posted by Ed Mierzwinski at November 17, 2006 12:05 PM
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