On August 22, 2016, Mark C. Dambrowski, a resident of Illinois, filed a lawsuit against Equifax Information Services, LLC (known to most simply as “Equifax”) and Bank of America. The reason for the lawsuit being that Mr. Dambrowski is still alive and thriving, but according to Equifax and Bank of America, he is dead and six feet under.
In October of 2015, Mr. Dambrowski, like many, began the process of refinancing his home mortgage. But, upon submitting a credit application, his prospective lender explained to him that his request was denied due to the fact that he was dead. Yes, you heard correctly. Equifax reported that the very much alive and breathing Mr. Dambrowski was actually deceased.
Shocked and confused, Mr. Dambrowski started looking into the matter to uncover exactly what was going on. Apparently, the crux of the issue is that Bank of America reported Mr. Dambrowski as deceased because of an unsecured credit card account that had been closed for many years. Upon learning of this mix up, Mr. Dambrowski explained the error to Bank of America, proving to them that he was as much alive as the next person, and in turn, Bank of America promised to promptly notify Equifax of the blunder.
Trusting the issue was taken care of, months later, Mr. Dambrowski again tried to access his Equifax credit report but, same as before, he was told that he was deceased in their system and that he did not have a credit score, nor did he have a report to update.
On May 10, 2016, frustrated with the ongoing circumstances, Mr. Dambrowski sent a written dispute letter to Equifax requesting Equifax investigate the Bank of America account at the center of this mix up. In conjunction with his dispute letter, Mr. Dambrowski attached a 2015 W-2 Form, his insurance policy documents, and his driver’s license issued March of 2016, all to establish that he was in fact still alive.
On June 6, 2016, Equifax responded to Mr. Dambrowski’s dispute and verified that Mr. Dambrowski was in fact deceased, despite all evidence to the contrary.
Because this outrageous reporting could not be farther from the truth, Mr. Dambrowski decided to take his “dispute” to the next level and he filed suit against both Equifax and Bank of America. Mr. Dambrowski alleged in his complaint that due to their “patently inaccurate” reporting, he was denied lines of credit, could not refinance his mortgage, and incurred significant costs trying to prove to these major institutions that he is in fact still alive. Mr. Dambrowski alleged three counts and 11 ways that the companies violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), seeking both statutory and punitive damages for the error.
While this may sound like a crazy, far out scenario – it is actually more common than you think. Equifax and the other major credit bureaus are reporting errors, big and small, left and right. This is the very reason McCarthy Law established our credit reporting error division – to help eradicate credit reporting errors from consumer credit reports all without charging our clients a penny. Each and every person deserves to have their credit report accurately reflect their account information and payment history so they can effectively accomplish their goals.
If you think your credit report is reporting inaccurate information about one of your accounts, then contact McCarthy Law right away. At McCarthy Law, we focus our practice on YOUR rights – be it resolving credit reporting errors, settling debt or consolidating private student loans. We are on your side, 100%, from start to finish. So go ahead, and give us a call today for a FREE evaluation of your credit report. Or, you can also visit our credit report errors page. We have attorneys and experienced staff standing by to help, so what are you waiting for? Call today.