Beware of deceptive credit report practices

I was sent an interesting letter that was distributed to companies working as affiliates with Equifax about the official site Annual Credit Report.com and the many deceptive look-alike sites now out there.

Here's what Kent Mast, Corporate Vice President and General Counsel for Equifax, Inc., wrote, dated 3 October, to Equifax affiliates:

Dear Equifax Link Partner:

As you may know, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has expressed its concern that consumers seeking to obtain their free annual credit file disclosure, as provided by the FACT Act amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, not be diverted or misled from the only authorized website for exercise of this federal right, annualcreditreport.com...

The FTC has determined that any contrived URL that is similar to annualcreditreport.com, and any attempts to misdirect consumers from annualcreditreport.com, interferes improperly with consumers’ rights to request and receive their FACT Act credit reports. It deems such activities to be deceptive, misleading, and in violation of FTC Act; specifically, Section 5 prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts or practices.

Recently the FTC sent letters to the registrants of numerous websites the FTC believed were too similar to annualcreditreport.com, misleading, and in violation of the FTC Act. The text of this FTC letter is set forth below, and a copy of the letter may be found at www.ftc.gov/opa/2005/08/consumerinfoletter.pdf.

Actions inconsistent with applicable law, including the FTC Act, constitute violations of our agreement with your organization. Accordingly, Equifax will terminate our agreement with any one engaging in such activities and failing to timely cease such deceptive practices.

Please review promptly your websites and URLs and take all measures to ensure that they do not mislead or divert consumers from annualcreditreport.com and comply in all respects with the requirements stated in the enclosed FTC letter. Please let me know if there are any questions concerning this letter.

Interesting, isn't it?