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A recent class action lawsuit against Verizon claims that the cellular company checks consumer credit reports without permission.
Plaintiff Scott Mathews says he does not have an account with Verizon and has never inquired about their services or initiated opening an account with the company.
Despite this complete lack of any business relationship, Verizon allegedly checked Mathews’ credit without his consent.
In September 2018, Mathews says he was routinely checking his credit report when he discovered that Verizon had performed a credit check on him.
Later that month, Mathews was allegedly “further bewildered” when he received a letter from Verizon that an account had been opened in his name.
Mathews states that he never opened an account with the company and was forced to “expend time, resources, and effort” to resolve the situation that he claims was not his fault.
The Verizon class action alleges that Verizon acknowledged that Mathews himself was not responsible for the opening of the account. Despite this fact, Verizon reportedly obtained Mathews’ credit report without his authorization.
According to Mathews, Verizon violates the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act by pulling credit information on consumers without their consent. The law requires businesses to obtain authorization from consumers before pulling credit reports.
Mathews argues that these violations were “willful” and that Verizon should have known that they did not have authorization to pull credit information from himself and other consumers.
“Plaintiff was not a Verizon customer and had never sought to open an account with Verizon,” the Verizon class action lawsuit claims. “Defendant had absolutely no permissible purpose for performing any credit inquiry on Plaintiff whatsoever.”
The issue experienced by Mathews is reportedly widespread. The Verizon class action references several online complaints from consumers who allegedly had accounts opened with the cellular company without their consent.
Mathews argues that Verizon is supposed to have safeguards to prevent against the fraudulent opening of accounts. Safeguards reportedly include the presentation of photo identification and other processes to ensure that the wrong consumer doesn’t have their credit information pulled.
The Verizon class action also claims that Mathews and other consumers have suffered concrete injuries from the unauthorized credit pulling. These injuries reportedly include invasion of privacy, informational injuries, reduced credit scores, and an increased risk of identity theft.
Mathews seeks to hold Verizon accountable for violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act and aims to represent a Class of individuals who had a credit inquiry performed by Verizon without authorization within the last five years.
Several other Verizon class action lawsuits have accused the company of mishandling consumer information. In May 2019, the company was accused of selling consumer location data without their consent. In July 2019, a consumer claimed that Verizon mishandled a debt that resulted from identity theft.
Did you have your credit checked by Verizon without your consent? Let us know in the comment section below!
Mathews and the proposed Class are represented by Richard Kim and David M. Promisloff of The Kim Law Firm LLC.
The Verizon Credit Check Class Action Lawsuit is Mathews v. Verizon Communications Inc., Case No. 3:19-cv-21442, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
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305 thoughts onVerizon Class Action Says Credit Checks Pulled Without Consent
Verizon made several credit checks without my knowledge and this has harmed my rating significantly
While shopping at Walmart an employee asked if I was interested in a pre paid phone account because he noticed I was interested in the Straight Talk service. I asked him what was needed and what the cost would be. I told him I did not want to sign up if a credit check / hard inquiry was involved. He told me that Verizon never leaves hard inquiries and doesn’t check credit and they are only checking to make sure I’ve never had an account with Verizon. After being advised that wouldn’t happen i wanted to make sure that the phones were in fact free and that I could pay one set fee monthly without being in any type of contract with Verizon before I made a decision. He didn’t even give me the option to agree and before I know it he signed me up for the account and told me I only had to pay $21 that day. He never had me sign anything or look anything over. I thought to myself that this deal was really good and since he already had me signed up then why not go ahead with it. It was a super good deal in my opinion. Fast forward a month later and I’m receiving a bill for over $300 and guess what? I have a hard inquiry from Verizon on my credit report. He was not honest with me and did whatever he had to, to get me signed up to make his commission. Now I have a $500 bill sent to credit because I just couldn’t afford that deal. I’m still very upset about it and nobody at Verizon cared to listen and they also told me they don’t pull credit and leave hard inquiries and only do soft checks but that’s clearly a lie too. I have the proof on my credit report.
My credit report just recently took a hard hit from Verizon “closed account”, with a balance of $166 opened without permission on 10/14/20. It has shown up on my Transunion, Equifax, and Experian. I am not a Verizon customer, never have been and never planned to be. My mother and I are longtime family plan customers of AT&T, over 5 years. This fraudulent Verizon account on my report is currently being disputed. I need this resolved and removed immediately. My credit score was moving into a good range until this mess happened.
I don’t have service with Verizon however they checked my credit and billed me over 1400 plus for no service. I have t-mobile Verizon are scammers
I had my credit checked many years ago when I first signed up.
Add me
I never had a verizon phone and checked my credit and there was a bill unpaid for 150 dollars on my credit i contacted verizon and they sent me to another collectors number saying they dont have any information on me. Im fighting to get that shit off my credit now
Verizon did two credit checks on me without my consent also two accounts were started in my name without my consent
I only allowed Verizon to pull my credit during the initial contract. I was just told that they have been pulling my credit every 6 months unauthorized.
They just did a credit check on me when I clicked I did not one performed when inquiring on opening service. I did not provide my SS # either. Please add me
This has happened to me. Please feel free to reach out.