4/11/2024 0 Comments Lift equifax freeze without pinWhen I did some more digging on the NCTUE, I discovered…wait for it…Equifax also is the sole contractor that manages the NCTUE database. The entity’s site is also hosted out of Equifax’s servers. If anyone finds differently, please leave a note in the comments section. Google has virtually no useful information available about an entity called Centralized Credit Check Systems. The California Utility Exchange collects customer payment data from dozens of local utilities in the state, and also is operated by Equifax ( Equifax Information Services LLC). Verizon is one of many telecom providers that use the NYDE (and recall that AT&T was the founder of NCTUE). The NYDE is operated by Equifax Credit Information Services Inc. (yes, that Equifax). Who are the NCTUE’s members? If you call the 800-number that NCTUE makes available to get a free copy of your NCTUE credit report, the option for “more information” about the organization says there are four “exchanges” that feed into the NCTUE’s system: the NCTUE itself something called “ Centralized Credit Check Systems“ the New York Data Exchange and the California Utility Exchange.Īccording to a partner solutions page at Verizon, the New York Data Exchange is a not-for-profit entity created in 1996 that provides participating exchange carriers with access to local telecommunications service arrears (accounts that are unpaid) and final account information on residential end user accounts. The NCTUE is a consumer reporting agency founded by AT&T in 1997 that maintains data such as payment and account history, reported by telecommunication, pay TV and utility service providers that are members of NCTUE. “It’s mainly phone carriers, but utilities, power, water, cable, any of those, they’re all starting to use this more.” “We’re finding that a lot of phone carriers - even some of the larger ones - are relying on NCTUE for credit checks,” Kerskie said. Rather, the mobile providers were making credit queries with the National Consumer Telecommunications and Utilities Exchange (NCTUE), or. The freeze process is designed so that a creditor should not be able to see your credit file unless you unfreeze the account. A credit freeze blocks potential creditors from being able to view or “pull” your credit file, making it far more difficult for identity thieves to apply for new lines of credit in your name.īut Kerskie’s investigation revealed that the mobile phone merchants weren’t asking any of the four credit bureaus mentioned above. Kerskie said she’s had multiple victims in her area recently complain of having cell phone accounts opened in their names even though they had already frozen their credit files at the big three credit bureaus - Equifax, Experian and Trans Union (as well as distant fourth bureau Innovis). A big part of her job is helping local residents respond to identity theft and fraud complaints. Here’s a look at what may be going on, and how you can protect yourself.Ĭarrie Kerskie is director of the Identity Fraud Institute at Hodges University in Naples. One gripe I heard from several presenters was that identity thieves increasingly are finding ways to open new mobile phone accounts in the names of people who have already frozen their credit files with the big-three credit bureaus. The forum was held in Florida, one of the major epicenters for identity fraud complaints in United States. I spent a few days last week speaking at and attending a conference on responding to identity theft.
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