i share your frustration. when i called Paypal for information on how this attempted linkage may have occurred, they had no answers. so they transferred me to "their Bill Me Later Department" at phone# 866-528-3733. Both Paypal & BillMeLater are owned by eBay, btw... cautious reader, take note. meanwhile the rep at BME merely said they had no account information listed on file for me, and recommended i call Equifax to place a "fraud alert" on my file there. another fyi... Equifax is an investor in BME, so ive since learned. after insisting i offer up all sorts of personal info to verify my identity (including my SSN#), the very aggressive rep at Equifax seemed uncommonly eager to sell me their "extra protection package" for the low low price of $14.95/mo, claiming that to be the only way i can request a specific financial institution (ie BME) be blocked from performing credit pulls on my report- with or without my prior authorization! after being forced to ask many questions i finally ascertained that, evidently, all a so-called fraud alert does is place a 90-day flag on your file which any financial institution (again, ie BME) CAN choose to ignore! in other words, having the flag placed is absolutely useless to prevent anything and may just bite the consumer later on. however i went ahead and flagged my account, and declined purchasing the "additional protection". i really do not appreciate being extorted in this way. im having a difficult time understanding how any of this is even legal- it is certainly not ethical. im now receiving junk emails from Equifax purporting to offer yet another "protection package" for only $16/mo. but why should anyone be required to pay a monthly fee in order to even have the hope of being able to prevent some bank from being able to open UNAUTHORIZED ACCOUNTS on their behalf, in their name, and WITHOUT THEIR KNOWLEDGE??? i spent 20 minutes dancing verbal circles with the out-of-country rep at Equifax- and he never once inquired as to which financial institution i was attempting to block from access to my credit files... i suspect he knew exactly who had attempted to open a completely unauthorized account in my name, becoz after reading literally hundreds of other complaints about both Bill Me Later and Equifax business practices, all signs point in the direction of Equifax being yet another full partner in what is lining up to be a HUGE MESS FOR LOTS OF PEOPLE! it might be a wise action step to begin contacting business attorneys for their legal expertise...
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