EAST ST. LOUIS — A woman claims Chase, BB&T, Experian and others failed to conduct reasonable investigations into two fraudulent credit applications made in her name, resulting in her negative credit reports.
Chelsea Arnold filed a complaint March 1 in the U.S. District court for the Southern District of Illinois against Chase Bank USA, NA, Truist Financial Corporation, formerly known as BB&T Bank., Equifax Information Services LLC, Experian Information Solutions Inc., and Trans Union LLC, alleging violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
According to Arnold's complaint, in March 2020 "an unknown person" in Florida forged her name on a credit application for Chase and BB&T. Arnold alleges that she never gave her permission or consent for anyone to use her signature on credit applications but is now listed as having "credit obligations" with Chase and BB&T.
Arnold claims that despite disputing the accounts, Chase refuses to remove her accounts and continues to "collect and credit report." While BB&T acknowledged the fraud and removed the account, they reopened the account in June 2020. Arnold further claims that on April 25, 2020, Experian applied a credit freeze and fraud alert on her accounts and on May 28, 2020, Chase acknowledged "they were aware of the fraud" but "determined the account was still hers."
She claims the defendants failed to investigate her fraud claim and failed to assure the accuracy of her consumer report.
U.S. District court for the Southern District of Illinois case number 3:21-CV-00243-GCS