Public Credit reports & opting out

[MegaDave]

I got this email, and I need the straight dope on it:

Subject: FW: YOUR CREDIT REPORT GOES PUBLIC IN JULY!!!

Your Credit: Your personal Information goes public starting July 1st, 2003, the major credit bureaus in the US (Equifax, etc.) will be allowed to release credit info, mailing addresses, phone numbers, etc., to ANYONE
who requests it.

If you do not want to be included in this release of your personal information, you can call 1-888-567-8688. Once the message starts you will

want option #2 (even though option #1 refers to this email, push #2) and then option #3. Be sure to listen closely, the first option is only for a two-year period. Make sure you wait until they prompt for the third
option, which opts you out FOREVER.

You should receive their paperwork in the mail confirming the "opting out"in less than one week after making the call.

PASS THIS MESSAGE ON TO ALL IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK, FRIENDS AND FAMILY

I called the number and it gave me a couple of prompts and was asking some personal questions (i.e., phone number, ssn, name and address, etc.). Before I give this info to some annonomyous (sp?) computer, I would like to have it verified that this is legit.

Anyone know anything about this?

[UrbanChic]

Snopes to the rescue!

The phone number listed (1-888-5OPTOUT) is indeed legitimate; it is a shared number set up with the cooperation of the Associated Credit Bureaus to establish a single point of contact for consumers to call to request that all four major U.S. credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, Trans Union, and Novus/Innovis) remove their information from the marketing lists and pre-approved credit offer lists sold to third parties. Yes, they automated system will ask you to enter your phone number, Social Security number, and other personal information, because it needs that information to locate your record. If you are uncomfortable supplying this information to an automated system, you will have to call each of the four major credit bureaus individually and speak to real people at each one of them, a cumbersone and time-consuming process.

However, it is not true that consumers must call this number before 1 July 2003, nor is it true that recent legislation allows credit bureaus to share private information with “anyone who requests it.” This misinformation has been circulating since 2001, and the same message keeps getting get dusted off and sent around every year with an updated deadline. (In fact, if you call the number listed above, the first option you’re presented is to listen to a message explaining why the e-mail quoted above is false.)