"Public Information Search Sites".... (Putin, salary, legal, attorney)

[leadfoot4]

Where do these sites get their information from, and shouldn't there be some sort of requirement that the information they publish is correct??

Here's what I'm getting at. I have a neighbor that I don't really get along with, and I heard a rumor that he's moving. Obviously, I'm not going to ask him directly, but the "traffic" in his driveway, over the last couple of days, seems to indicate that the rumor is true, and it appears that realtors are showing the house. Just to be sure, I checked the internet, late yesterday, and sure enough, the house is listed for sale.

Here's where I start to question things.....Along with the house that is for sale, which is listed on an "MLS" basis, therefore multiple real estate agencies' websites, the listing(s) also have a "homes nearby" section, and of course, my house, as well as several other neighbors' homes are posted....along with the names of the "residents" in these houses. Bad enough our names are listed, but in the case of my house, as well as the other neighbor's houses, there are names of people that don't actually live there!

In the case of my house, my wife and I are the ONLY people who have ever resided in the house. However, on different "information" sites, at various times, my mother and father have lived at this address, as well as my wife's parents, her brother, and even a few people who we don't know who they are!! With respect to my father, he died 45 years ago, 15 years before my house even existed, and my mother died 7 years ago! My in-laws also died quite a while ago. And one of the other supposed "residents" of my house, while he does have the same surname as mine, lives in a different state, some 800 miles from me. HUH???

I'm not the only one, as a couple of the other homes near me, have had multiple owners, over the 32 years that our street has been in existence, but these sites still list the original as "residents", even though they moved 15-20 years ago.

OK, my rant is over, but I do find this rather annoying.....

[Diane de Poitiers]

Reminds me of the Spokeo website. I have no idea where their information came from, but as an example - they took my sister's maiden name, and combined it with her husband's last name to make an imaginary person. (Picture something like....."Peterson Cook").

They also have my sister listed as being in her 70s, when she's actually 30 years younger than that.

[Ken_N]

If you do any genealogy research you will find a lot of records like this. I’m not sure where they come from but many lists of names, addresses, phone numbers. They seem to come from public and government lists.

[Cape Cod Todd]

It is rare for public records to be up to date and since this is in the political forum I have to ask the question. What happens to all the mail in ballots for the 2022 midterms made out to all those ghost residents?

[elvis44102]

i have several emails i use for things i don't want clogging my good email...one is dinker440...i now have dinker440s criminal record and such...dinker was my cat

[Retroit]

They probably use the Registered Voters List.

[bluesjuke]

Originally Posted by Cape Cod Todd

It is rare for public records to be up to date and since this is in the political forum I have to ask the question. What happens to all the mail in ballots for the 2022 midterms made out to all those ghost residents?

Donkey's pick them up on Wednesday to recycle.

[Mircea]

Originally Posted by leadfoot4

Where do these sites get their information from, and shouldn't there be some sort of requirement that the information they publish is correct??

From your credit report. That's why you can't always find people, because if they have no credit history or no recent credit history/activity, there's nothing to report.

Credit reporting is a purely voluntary activity. There is not now, nor has there ever been any law at the State/federal level that compels a creditor, debt collector/junk debt buyer from reporting.

So...when you offer to settle a debt in exchange for the debt collector removing the offending trade line from your credit report and the debt collector says,"We're not allowed" they are lying to you.

Credit info is reported on a "want to" basis and not a "need/have to" basis.

Why? Because it ain't free.

Ever been in a gas station/convenient store and they have a sign: "No credit/debit card for purchases under $10."

It's because they pay a transaction fee to VISA and a separate transaction fee to MasterCard and a separate transaction fee to Discover and a separate transaction fee to American Excess and that's why few allow American Excess because their transaction fees are outrageously nose bleed high.

Those transaction fees are based on the number of monthly transactions. The fewer the transactions, the higher the fee. The greater the transactions, you move into "bulk rate discount" territory.

It's also like cable. You have subscription tiers.

Tier I is basic header file info. What is that? Your name, age, DOB, SSN, and then current address, phone, employer and salary as reported by you, a creditor or a debt collector.

Tier II is advanced header file info, which is your name, and all of your aliases/variants, age DOB, SSN, and then your address history, phone number history, employer history and salary history as reported by you, a creditor or a debt collector.

Tier III is that plus a breakdown of accounts, meaning number of accounts, open/closed, and current/late/derogatory, but no numbers, meaning no balances, credit limits, original loan amounts, or payment history.

Tier IV includes the stuff not in Tier III.

Tier V is mostly debt collectors/junk debt buyers. Every time you apply for credit, obtain new credit, or have a change of address, phone or employer, they get an email alert so they can look at your credit report, because if you got money for new credit, then you got money for old credit, right?

So, BeenVerified, Checkmate, Spokeo, PeopleSearch etc sometimes get their info from them, or from the three other credit reporting agencies who will politely tell you they are not credit reporting agencies, unless you get adamant at which point they'll shout you down.

That would be ChoicePoint, Lexis-Nexis and I can never remember the other (and not Hogan because Lexis bought Hogan.)

Those credit-reporting-agencies-masquerading-as-not-credit-reporting-agencies have detailed files on you.

They known the members of your household, plus your parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts/uncles, nieces/nephews, cousins, current and former spouses and also current and former significant others, plus a whole lot more.

Why? Because the majority of Americans are so lame they will gladly allow anyone to invade their privacy simply for the asking. Few people actually read the TOS/Agreement or whatever it might be called.

Can you sue? Yes, but for god's sake don't file suit in a federal court because that will invoke Article III of the US Constitution and you cannot prove standing.

There are three Elements of Proof for standing and the first -- "injury-in-fact" -- has two sub-elements: Concrete and Particularized.

Those of you who don't understand the difference between the conjunctions "and" and "or" should fire off a Tweet cursing your high school English teachers for failing you.

If you cannot prove a concrete injury-in-fact then the federal court won't even consider the issue of "particularized" because you have no standing, and it won't examine the second and third Elements of Proof, either, because there's no point to it.

So, what do you do?

Try reading the statutes.

What does 15 USC § 1681p of the Fair Credit Reporting Act say?

It says: "An action to enforce any liability created under this title may be brought in any appropriate United States district court, without regard to the amount in controversy, or in any other court of competent jurisdiction,..."

A court of "competent jurisdiction" would be your county courthouse. In Ohio and some States those are called Common Pleas Courts; in New York, California and elsewhere they are Superior Courts; in Virginia and other States they are Circuit Courts; and there's a few other names in some States.

File there. Can they remove it to federal court? Sure. It's a federal question and they have 30 days starting the day they are served to remove it to federal court.

But, if they remove it from State court they cannot assert Article III standing as a bar.

However, before you even think about collecting your $1,000 in statutory damages, you need to dispute the incorrect information with the credit reporting agency(ies) that are reporting the false information.

So, you do an online dispute, right?

No, only dumb ass lame people do that.

Type up a dispute letter and mail it certified mail return receipt requested.

But that's soooo inconvenient!

Uh-huh.

It's called Electronic Discovery.

You disputed online because it was "convenient."

There's a discovery deadline. Your attorney will probably call you 6 weeks before the deadline and tell you to box up your desk-top/lap-top and bring it down to the office.

Then you'll box it up and bring it down to the office and you'll get billed for that if not at attorney rates then at paralegal rates.

Then your desk-top/lap-top will sit in your attorney's office until they decide to turn it over to opposing counsel.

And you'll get billed for that at attorney or paralegal rates.

Then, opposing counsel will down-load all the crap on your desk-top/lap-top.

After sitting in opposing counsel's office for who knows how long, they'll send it back to your attorney, and you'll get billed for that.

Eventually, your attorney will call you to come pick it up.

So, how, um, "convenient" was it?

Yeah. Just type up a letter and mail it. You can authenticate the letter and return receipts with an affidavit under Civil Rule 901 or however your State has rules of civil procedure enumerated.

Oh, I recommend disputing at least 3 times. If it still ain't corrected, go to State court and get your $1,000 in statutory damages from the credit reporting agency.

[leadfoot4]

Originally Posted by Mircea

From your credit report. That's why you can't always find people, because if they have no credit history or no recent credit history/activity, there's nothing to report.

Nice lengthy bit of information, but I'm not buying that.

A credit report would most likely have a CORRECT address of the person they're creating a report on. If it WAS a credit reporting agency, like 'Equifax', for instance, the last report they'd have on my father, would be in 1975, the year that he died, or maybe even 1976, if they run a little behind.

I bought my house in 1990, and it was a "new build", and the street the house is on, didn't exist until 1990, so there should be no logical reason for a credit reporting agency to have any information on my father, at my address. At the house where he last lived, maybe, even after all these years, but not at my house.

And going further with my wife, there have even been "supposed relatives" of hers listed, at our address, beyond her deceased brother, mother, and father. And these are people with her maiden surname, and people we have absolutely no idea of who they are.....

[MJJersey]

They are notoriously wrong. Unfortunately, SCOTUS said you can’t sue them for being wrong.