Fake Credit Report Sites: Cashing in on Your Personal Information

From Federal Trade Commission > Bureau of Consumer Protection > Office of Consumer and Business Education

 You may have seen Web sites or received unsolicited email offering credit reports, sometimes for free. Beaware that some of these online operators may not actually provide credit reports, but may be using these sitesas a way to capture your personal information. From there, they may sell your information to others who mayuse it commit fraud, including identity theft.

This is a variation on “phishing,” also called “carding,” a high-tech scam that uses spam or fraudulent Websites to deceive consumers into disclosing their credit card numbers, bank account information, Social Securitynumbers, passwords, and other sensitive information.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, urges you to take thefollowing precautions when visiting sites or responding to email that offer credit reports:

If you get an email offering a credit report, don’t reply or click on the link in the email. Instead,contact the company cited in the email using a telephone number or Web site address you know tobe genuine.

Be skeptical of unsolicited email offering credit reports. Keep an eye out for email from an atypicaladdress, like This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , or an email address ending in a top level domain other than.com, like .ru or .de.

Check whether the company has a working telephone number and legitimate address. You cancheck addresses at Web sites like www.switchboard.com, and phone numbers through reverselookup search engines like www.anywho.com.

Check for misspellings and grammatical errors. Silly mistakes and sloppy copy — for example, anarea code that doesn’t match an address — often are giveaways that the site is a scam. Look at thecompany’s Web address: is it a real company’s address or it is a misspelled version of a legitimate company’s Web address?

Check to see whether the email address matches the Web site address. That is, when you enter thecompany’s Web address into the browser, does it go to the sender’s site or re-direct you to a differ-ent Web address? If it re-directs you, that’s a red flag that you should cease the transaction.

Find out who owns the Web site by using a “Whois” search such as the search at DomainTools.com

Exit from any Web site that asks for unnecessary personal information, like a Personal IdentificationNumber (PIN) for your bank account, the three-digit code on the back of your credit card, or yourpassport number and issuing country. Legitimate sites don’t ask for this information.

All legitimate sites will want to verify who you are, and will respond to an electronic request for acredit report by asking you for an additional piece of information. If a site does not ask a follow-upquestion, the site is almost certainly a fake.

Use only secure Web sites. Look for the “lock” icon on the browser’s status bar, and the phrase“https” in the URL address for a Web site, to be sure your information is secure during transmis-sion. All real sites are secure.

Watch your mailbox and credit card statements: If you’ve responded to a bogus site, you may neverreceive the credit report they offered for free. If you paid one of these sites for a credit report, yourcredit card may never be charged. If you find that you have unauthorized charges, contact yourfinancial institutions and credit card issuers immediately.

Report suspicious activity to the FTC and the U.S. Secret Service. Send the actual spam to the LosAngeles Electronic Crimes Task Force at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and to the FTC at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it If you believe you’ve been scammed, file your complaint at www.ftc.gov and then visit the FTC’s Identity Theft Web site (www.consumer.gov/idtheft) to learn how to minimize yourrisk of damage from identity theft.

For More Information and to Complain

For a copy of your credit report from the major credit bureaus, contact:

• Equifax — www.equifax.com; 1-800-685-1111
• Experian — www.experian.com; 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742)
• TransUnion — www.transunion.com; 1-800-888-4213

The Federal Trade Commission works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair busi-ness practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them.To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit www.ftc.gov or call toll-free,1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing,identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database available tohundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. Consumers also can call theirlocal office of the Secret Service.