Company Fined $120,000 For Adding False Accounts To Credit Reports

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Consumer reporting agency Far West Credit, Inc. will pay $120,000 to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it did not follow reasonable procedures to assure the accuracy of the information in the consumer reports it sold to mortgage companies, in violation of federal law. Assistance in this matter was provided to the FTC by the Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations, United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.

According to an FTC complaint, Far West creates consumer credit reports for use by the mortgage industry in evaluating consumers for loans. Far West buys credit reports from the major credit reporting agencies, Equifax, TransUnion and Experian, and merges the information about the consumers. If there is insufficient information about the consumer’s credit worthiness from the major credit reporting agencies, Far West will accept information from the consumer, or other interested parties, to show consumers’ credit status with businesses such as cable companies, utilities, “rent-to-own” businesses and insurance companies – operations that do not report normally to the nationwide credit bureaus. They add this information to the reports they prepare on the consumer.

The complaint alleges that Far West provided....for more of the story from Originator Times