Credit Report Mistake, identity theft or administrative error?

[asscherisme]

Hi,

I check my credit report through my credit union, every quarter they give me all three for free.

I saw something alarming on my transunion report. It has an alias (former name) that was NOT me. Some random name I never heard of. And under former addresses, there was an address I never heard of either. I assume it was associated with that name. My other 2 reports were clean. And my listing of accounts was clean. My credit score remained high and unaffected by the incorrect name under alias.

From research, this could be either 1. someone attempting identity theft or 2. a bank error somewhere with a social security number mix up and this other person ended up on my report.

I immediately contacted transunion to put in a dispute and remove that wrong name and address; they got back to me within hours and corrected my report and removed it.

I am leaning more towards administrative error because if it was an attempted identity theft, wouldn't they have tried to open accounts under MY name, rather than put some random person's name on my report as an alias/former name?

And wouldn't I see accounts opened on my report that were not mine? All I saw was the wrong name under former names and an address I never lived at on one out of three reports, and I had it removed already.

So, what are your take on this? Should I continue to worry? Do you think it was identity theft or an administrative error somewhere?

My credit scrore is super important to me. It is over 800, and I have worked really hard to keep it there. It was why I was able to buy a house last summer on my own. And it is crucial it stays high for various reasons.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

I had something similar happen years ago except in my case there was a strange address and she opened a utility account which showed up as in collections. It took a lot of effort, many hours and phone calls to straighten it out. I also tracked down where she had moved to and put her name address and phone number on every correspondence I could!

At the least I would keep a very close eye on it for a while, you could put a freeze on it if you don't plan on applying for any new credit for a while just to be on the safe side. My breach only showed up on one report, the others were clear so although it may just be a clerical error, I would take every possible precaution.