Reader comments
Woman pleads guilty on fraud, theft counts

The victims need to file a class action lawsuit against the credit reporting bureaus who SOLD their personal details without the rightful owner's permission.

The credit reporting bureaus's make money selling OTHER people's information to strangers. Why are they allowed to do this? Why aren't they required to seek PERMISSION from the rightful owner before doing this? Why aren't they held responsible when this information is 'accidently' sold to identity thieves?

The credit reporting bureaus then have the nerve to SELL us credit monitoring services so we (the consumer) can see who they are being SOLD OUT to.

There is a name for this type of activity. Its called a 'RACKET', where you create a problem that needs to be fixed. Of course this 'solution' is just more money in the hands of the perpetrators at OUR expense.

Contact your elected officials and demand the right to freeze your credit files at NO CHARGE. We shouldn't have to be extorted to keep this kind of information safe. The credit reporting bureaus shouldn't be allowed to promote identity theft without at least having some culpability for THEIR part in this epidemic crime.

I TOTALLY agree with you WRT the credit bureaus selling our info without our permission yet we have to PAY them to freeze to protect our own information. I've often wondered why the credit bureaus have the right to sell our info in the first place.

Don't hold your breath waiting for government officials to stand on our side for free credit freezes. The credit bureaus have people on the committees who help legislators in every state draft identity theft laws and credit freezes. They aren't about to cut off their financial benefit on behalf of consumers.

Think about this. Before there were credit freeze laws, the credit bureaus were up in arms thinking this would hurt retailers ability to offer instant credit, thus hurting their ability to gain money from giving access to our credit files. Now they have figured out a way to prosper by charging consumer fees to freeze our credit files -- AND we have to pay fees to "thaw" our credit files in the event we need to obtain credit.

Final thoughts... The credit bureaus should obtain OUR permission to give or sell to anyone or any company!