Re: AKICIF: "X-Kaspersky:" header

Keith F. Lynch <kfl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> mike weber <fairportfan@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>> In other scam news, I just got a second letter from AFNI, which
>>> claims to be a collection agency demanding payment for a bogus
>>> Verizon phone bill.  A Google search confirms that they're a scam.
>>> The question is whether credit reporting agencies know this.
> 
>> Credit reporting agancies often appear to know nothing at all,
>> judging by some of the things that radio consumer advisor Clark
>> Howard gets calls about.
> 
> Then why does anyone pay attention to what credit reporting
> agencies say?

Short answer: because the alternatives are worse (for the lenders).

Longer answer: the purpose of the credit agency is to benefit their
subscribers (lenders), allowing them to estimate the riskiness of
potential borrowers without having personal knowledge of them. The
sheer volume of data that flows into them means that practically all
updates to their databases are going to be automated and all ratings are
going to be formulaic rather than individual. The tendency of people to
use slight variations of their name, address, etc. means matches will have
to be "fuzzy" rather than exact. I think these requirements are at the
root of most problems.
I've found all of the agencies to be very cooperative in investigating and
removing incorrect information. Again, the agencies are in business for
lenders, and the lenders don't want to lose potential customers because of
bad data from a credit report. OTOH, the more negative stuff on a person's
credit report the more likely it is the agency is going to think that
attempts to remove it are a scam to try and boost ratings by removing
accurate but negative data.
If you care about your credit at all and are in the US it's worthwhile to
take advantage of the free yearly credit reports from each of the
agencies. I consider it to be the same thing as checking my bank
statements for errors.

	Robert
-- 
Robert K. Shull                           Email: rkshull at rosettacon dot
com