Consumer reporting companies that rely on name-matching alone to match records to an individual are violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said. Such companies must verify information with “maximum possible accuracy,” the CFPB said. “Regulators are concerned about the significant harms caused by false identity matching.”
Using only first and last name to determine whether a particular item of information relates to a particular consumer — without it with other personally identifying information such as address, date of birth, or Social Security number — consumer reporting companies are not meeting accuracy thresholds, the bureau said.