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Experian caught up in ID theft investigation

One of the three major consumer credit bureaus is under investigation by the US Secret Service for selling personal data to an ID theft ring.
Written by Larry Seltzer, Contributor

Security researcher Brian Krebs has uncovered the involvement of credit bureau Experian in an ID theft operation.

Experian, an information services company best-known as one of the three major consumer credit bureaus, became involved through their March, 2012 acquisition of Court Ventures.

Through research, Krebs demonstrated that Court Ventures had sold data to Superget.info, a "fraudster-friendly" site which marketed the ability to look up personally-identifiable information on millions of Americans.

Krebs cites an interview with Marc Martin, the CEO of another information services company which had a relationship with Court Ventures.  Martin tells of a US Secret Service investigation of Experian related to ID theft and the data sold to Superget.info.

Individuals at Superget.info had presented themselves to Court Ventures as US-based investigators and gained access to Experian data. In fact, they were based in Vietnam, and the individuals have a history of involvement in ID theft.

Experian has also been in the news recently as the agency which performs credit history checks for the troubled government site healthcare.gov.

 

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