TransUnion Credit Report Class Action Says Innocent Citizens Are Marked as Terrorists

A U.S. citizen and military contractor recently filed a class action lawsuit alleging that his TransUnion credit report unfairly associates him with terrorists.

Plaintiff Ahmed Al-Shaikli says that he is in no way a terrorist and, in fact, is a U.S. citizen who served as a U.S. military contractor. Despite this fact, his TransUnion credit report was allegedly associated with terrorists on the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) watch list.

“Trans Union continues to associate highly derogatory terrorist watchlist information with innocent consumers in a cavalier fashion and without using all available personal identifying information, as it did with Plaintiff,” the TransUnion credit report class action lawsuit contends.

“Indeed, the only personal identifier that ‘matched’ Plaintiff to either of the two record entries on the OFAC list that Trans Union associated with him is the first name ‘Ahmed,’ a common Arabic name.”

Al-Shaikli says that he uncovered this unlawful information this year when applying for mortgage pre-approval. Unfortunately, his applications were denied – leading him to investigate his credit reports from the three main credit reporting agencies.

Although his credit reports from Equifax and Experian didn’t contain any unusual information, Al-Shaikli’s TransUnion credit report allegedly claimed that he was associated with two people on the OFAC’s list of Specially Designated Nationals. This list contains names and information of terrorists and suspected terrorists who are unable to engage in business in America due to national security risks.

According to the TransUnion class action lawsuit, there was no reason for Al-Shaikli’s information to be associated with people on the OFAC list. In fact, of all the information found on his credit report, only the plaintiff’s first name Ahmed matched the two related profiles.

One report was for a “Ahmed Al-Jubouri” who was born nearly 20 years before the plaintiff while another was for a “Ahmed Al Kurd” who was born more than 35 years before the plaintiff. For both of these entries, TransUnion allegedly said that there was a “matching name” despite the differing last names. Al-Shaikli notes that his first name “Ahmed” is very common in Arabic families and its too loose of an association to warrant labeling him a terrorist.

Unfortunately, this inaccurate information was allegedly sold to third-parties such as creditors. As a result, Al-Shaikli claims he has sustained financial injury and other damages.

The plaintiff says he is worried about how this fraudulent credit report will affect his ability to travel or live abroad in the future.

After he learned that TransUnion associated terrorist records with his credit report and that third-parties had been sold this information, Al-Shaikli says that he was “humiliated and embarrassed, and highly concerned about his reputation with his existing and prospective creditors, and with the government.”

The plaintiff argues that TransUnion, who compiles specific information about consumers such as names, birth dates, and Social Security numbers, has no excuse for needlessly associating consumer reports with terrorist names.

The TransUnion credit report class action lawsuit says that the credit bureau is in violation of federal laws by failing to use all available information when associating OFAC entries with consumer reports. Specifically, Al-Shaikli says that TransUnion is in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

The class action argues that TransUnion should have used the information available to them when verifying if a credit report matched a OFAC entry. By failing to do this, TransUnion allegedly violated the FCRA – a prominent law which Al-Shaikli says the credit bureau is aware of.

“Despite having over a decade of notice that failing to use all available personal identifying information to associate OFAC records with individual consumers is an egregious and willful violation of the FCRA, Trans Union has continued to disregard dates of birth and not require strict name matching,” the TransUnion credit report class action lawsuit argues.

Al-Shaikli seeks to represent several Classes of affected consumers, including a Class of consumers who had a TransUnion credit report which included any OFAC record within the last five years. He also seeks to represent two subclasses of consumers who were associated with this list despite their name or birthdate being different.

Did your TransUnion credit report unfairly label you as a terrorist? Are you worried about other parts of your credit report being inaccurate? Share your story in the comment section below.

Al-Shaikli and the proposed Class are represented by James A. Francis, John Soumilas, and Lauren K.W. Brennan of Francis Mailman Soumilas PC.

The TransUnion Credit Report Class Action Lawsuit is Al-Shaikli v. TransUnion LLC, Case No. 5:20-cv-04155, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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