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By Sherry Miller
Credit headers can be a powerful tool if used effectively by the investigator. Let’s look briefly at what credit headers are, where they come from and how to use them.
Credit headers are products of the consumer credit bureaus. There are three main credit bureaus: Equifax, TRW, and Trans Union. All other bureaus are affiliates, subscribers and contributors to one of these three. Credit bureaus acquire most of the information kept in their files from creditors, who obtained it from the subject. When an application for credit is submitted, the information provided by the consumer seeking credit will be available to anyone who has access to the system.
The consumer fills out an application for a credit card or other credit, and the information is transferred, sometimes within minutes, into an enormous, nationwide electronic network. If the credit bureau does not have a file that matches the name, address and social security number provided in the request, a new one is instantly created. Whenever an inquiry is made, the “footprint” of the inquiring party is also added to the file. This is done to curtail fraud, and to assist all the subscribers in verifying or obtaining information by contacting each other.
The reason these databases are of such value to the investigator is that the consumer is often ignorant of how the information gets into the database. For instance, if your subject moves away and does not leave a forwarding address on file. But, he does fill out a rental application at his new location, that same day, the information is contributed to his file, when the landlord inquires about the subject’s credit worthiness! Or, perhaps your subject rented furniture, bought an appliance, used his credit card, or got a new car. All of these activities are likely to update his file with the new information he provided on the application for credit.
In summary, data found in credit headers is gathered from consumer credit applications, creditors reporting credit activity, skip tracers and collection agencies. All of these contributors update a consumer’s file whenever they make an inquiry. All three credit bureaus have nationwide coverage, with affiliates and subscribers in every state. However, the data contained in their reports may vary depending on the contributors in a particular area. Therefore, it is wise to check all three sources whenever possible.
Next, let us familiarize ourselves with the different products offered by the bureaus. There are three basic products (reports): credit reports, social security traces, and identifier searches.
The consumer credit report is the first to come to mind. A credit report is regulated by the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) and should only be acquired by those with permissible purposes for doing so. Generally, those purposes include: granting of credit, insurance underwriting, pre-employment, rental screening, and relating to other legitimate business transactions.
Social security traces contain the identifying information extracted from the top half or “header” portion of the consumer’s credit report, hence the term “credit header.” These may include: names used, current and former addresses, spouse’s name, date of birth, employer and telephone numbers. Because no credit information or payment history is included, these reports are not regulated and do not require a permissible purpose. They are a popular tool used by the skip tracer to obtain new addresses and sometimes a date of birth.
Identifier searches contain the same header information found in the social security trace, but allow retrieval of the report with just a name and address. They are the least expensive method of obtaining a social security number for a subject and are also not regulated, requiring no permissible purpose.
Other products are offered by the bureaus to skip tracers and collection agencies. Specifically, these are the “Finders” report from Equifax and the “Fact” report from Trans Union. Both are “enhanced” credit headers containing all the identifying information from the consumers file. In addition, a list of creditors, account numbers, and creditors’ telephone numbers are included. These reports fall into a gray area with respect to the FCRA. “Voluntary” regulation of these reports varies depending on the attitude of the legal department in the office marketing them.
Obtaining access to credit headers is relatively simple. Contact the local office of each of the three credit bureaus and ask for an application. Keep in mind that the credit bureaus prefer NOT to do business with investigators. Ostensibly, this is due to a history of investigators “misusing” credit reports to locate individuals, etc. Another option for access is to obtain the reports from a reseller or broker. Many information brokers can save you the trouble, sign up fees, and minimums of subscribing directly.
Let’s now look at how to interpret the information found on a credit header. We’ll focus first on the social security traces. Begin by submitting your subject’s social security number, and obtaining reports from the three credit bureaus. Reports returned may contain a wealth of information, including new enhancements that reflect the year and state of issue for the number submitted. This information can help you easily determine if the number you have could possibly belong to your subject.
When examining header reports, keep in mind that the information you’re interpreting came from creditors, and ultimately, from the subject. Just because he uses a number does NOT indicate that the number was issued to him by the Social Security Administration. Next, all names associated with the number are returned along with the addresses and dates first reported. Multiple names may indicate aliases or other individuals using the same number. Dates or years of birth are returned if they are contained in the consumer’s file. These may assist when your investigation calls for driving or criminal histories. Finally, if a social security number has been retired or belongs to a deceased individual, there will be a “flag” on the file to notify you. If your subject is alive or very young, this may be another indicator of fraudulent activity.
The identifier searches are also an excellent way to gather data on your subject. If you do not have a social security number, you can input a name and address. The response will include all social security numbers, names and addresses associated with this individual. Multiple social security numbers may indicate fraudulent activity.
When using identifier searches, remember that you are trying to match a name and address in the bureaus’ files. If you do not get a report, try any and all other addresses your subject may have used. Once you can match any name/address combination the credit bureau has on file, a report will be returned. So, even an old address can be the key to obtaining a current address and all the other identifying information you need. Now, some headers even contain employer and spouse information, and telephone numbers.
Other valuable fraud fighting analysis provided by the credit bureaus includes a check of their fraud databases. This is usually done at the same time a social security or identifier search is run. Possible responses include flags to indicate institutional addresses, which can be hospitals, nursing homes or prisons. Mail drop (private mail box company) addresses will also cause a file to be “flagged” with a warning message. Other file variations such as differing middle initials and aliases will be reported as well.
In summary, credit headers can be a powerful and useful tool in any investigation. Credit headers may provide clues to fraudulent activities. When used to locate individuals, corroborate information or to obtain the identifiers necessary for additional fact-finding, credit header reports can be the most cost effective tools in your repertoire.
Sherry Miller is the founder of NightHawk International, a research firm established in 1988. Currently a staff instructor at Executive Security International in Aspen, Colorado, she is also the author of several reference texts for the research professional.
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