Falsely Labeled a Terrorist in Credit Reports cause Chaos
A California resident, Amit Patel, was falsely tagged as a terrorist by credit reporting agencies. The implications of this caused problems throughout his day-to-day life.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control keeps a list of over 6,000 businesses and individuals that they deem suspicious of terrorist actions. Before 9/11 this list was only in the hundreds, but has since grown as the criteria widened. Companies and businesses are prohibited from doing business with those on the list unless authorized by OFAC. Anyone on that list can be blacklisted from conducting day-to-day business. This could be devastating if you are mistakenly confused for someone on that list.
This happened to Amit Patel, who was unable to find a job for two years ; which he later found that this was likely due to the false terrorist tag on background checks. A man that had a 700 credit score, he was even denied an apartment. When he confronted his potential landlord about this, he was forwarded his credit report which is when he found out that he was labeled a terrorist.
So how could one be mistaken for a terrorist? Apparently it’s more common than you think. Amit’s first and last name matches an actual terrorist. The only difference is the middle name. What is frustrating is that the credit bureau’s database did not catch this difference and also didn’t recognize that the social security numbers between the two do not match as well.
The Treasury Department admits that the OFAC list generates many false positives. This is tragic, because many Americans have been denied jobs, financing, and even health insurance because of an OFAC alert. They are also saying that the issues surrounding the mistagging of terrorists lies with the credit bureaus and their mishandling of data.
Getting off this list is no easy task either; you will want to reach both the credit bureaus and OFAC. Contact Francis Mailman Soumilas, P.C. today to help you navigate both the bureaus and OFAC. Being falsely labeled a terrorist can strangle your financial resources. Get on top of this now before it’s too late.
Amit filed a lawsuit against a credit bureau who mistakenly labeled him a terrorist.