Lawsuit claims Xactus, Equifax, others violated Fair Credit Reporting Act

A plaintiff in California is claiming that Xactus and Equifax did not conduct a “reasonable” investigation into claims of identity theft, which harmed her credit and violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act. 

The suit was filed in late May in the Superior Court of San Bernardino County, California, by plaintiff Junnan Guo, who is representing herself pro se. It names Xactus and Equifax, as well as American First Credit Union, Adler Wallach & Associates, Citibank, Wells Fargo Card Services and Bridgecrest Acceptance Corp. as defendants.

Xactus moved to have the suit transferred to federal court in Riverside, California, on Monday. 

The suit claims that the defendants attempted to  “unlawfully and abusively collect an invalid debt from Plaintiff and for inaccurately reporting information to the Credit Reporting Agencies.”

According to the complaint, in September 2020, Guo suspected that someone was trying to open credit accounts in her name without her consent. This belief was confirmed in August 2022 when she received a bill for nearly $1,800 from AT&T for the purchase of a cell phone.

Guo said she knew nothing of this purchase and did not consent to it. This prompted her to review her credit reports, in which she said she noticed “other unauthorized credit inquiries and other unauthorized credit transactions.” 

In 2023, she noticed other fraudulent items on her credit report, including a delinquent trade line with a “balance of $1,011.00 purportedly owed to the Automobile Club of California (“AAA”) collected by debt collector Adler Wallach & Associates for insurance services.” Guo said that at all relevant times, she did not have car insurance through AAA.

This prompted Guo to send an initial dispute letter to American First Credit Union to dispute one “unauthorized hard inquiry dated March 24, 2023 on her Experian credit report.” Guo sent similar requests to Bridgecrest, Citibank, Equifax, Wells Fargo and Xactus, all of which allegedly told her they were unable to remove the unauthorized inquiries from her credit report.

“To date, Defendants’ inaccurate credit reporting, and each of them, remains on Plaintiff’s Equifax Credit Reports,” the complaint states. “By inaccurately reporting account information after notice and confirmation of its errors, Defendants, and each of them, failed to take appropriate measures as required by 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(b)(1)(D); and, (E).”

Guo claims that as a result of these actions she has suffered actual damages that include “attorneys’ fees, loss of credit, loss of ability to purchase and benefit from credit, [and] increased costs for credit.”

Guo is demanding a jury trial and is asking the court for damages. The defendants did not immediately respond to HousingWire’s requests for comment.