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The Courts Government Privacy The Almighty Buck News

Can You Sue Over Loss of Personal Information? 479

Posted by Cliff from the is-there-a-lawyer-in-the-house dept.
GreenCrackBaby asks: "My wife was at a mall about a year ago when she ran across one of those groups who were trying to sign people up for a Visa credit card. Since she didn't yet have a credit card, she decided she'd fill out the form. She had everything filled out and was ready to sign it when she noticed the draconian fine print that essentially promised that they would sell her personal data to anyone they could, so instead of signing the form she said 'no thanks' and tossed it in the garbage. That was a mistake she has been made to regret. Almost immediately SPAM to her university email address went from 0 to 20 a day, and has been slowly increasing since. Soon we started to receive a large number of telemarketing calls to our home (where before we had received almost none). Junk mail addressed to her went through the roof. It wasn't until the Visa card arrived addressed to her that we knew what had happened." It appears that someone fished this woman's application out of the garbage and submitted this anyways, without a signature. How is something like this even close to being legal?

"What has become clear is that someone selling those Visas fished her application out from the garbage and submitted it. We've managed to track down a copy of the form she had filled out, and in the signature area is a big 'N/A'. So now her personal information is being sold to every telemarketer, spammer, and junk mail shop in North America. What can she do? We'd like to sue the company who fished the application from the garbage and make a lesson out of them, but what is there to sue over? Is the loss of personal information even considered a tort?"
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Can You Sue Over Loss of Personal Information? More

Can You Sue Over Loss of Personal Information?

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  • you could always (Score:5, Informative)

    by REBloomfield ( 550182 ) on Friday October 10, 2003 @06:27AM (#7181307)
    ASK A LAWYER :)

    Now watch that get amrked redundant :)
    • You mean this isn't a legal advice site?
    • Ask a lawyer if you can sue someone for something?

      I would have thought the answer given would be obvious ;-)

    • PrePaid Legal! (Score:2, Informative)

      by St4rNin3 ( 113759 )
      Pre-Paid legal [gvz.com] gives you unlimited phone access to a lawyer and they will even write letters of make phone calls for you free with your membership ($26 or less per month) and if they did sue you for some reason, you would have 75 hrs of attorney time...

      There is much more to it than that, but I don't want this to be TOO much of a blatant advertisement.. :)

      In a situation like this, you could simply call your attorney and they could give you real legal advice and coud even help you out without it costing you

      • Re:PrePaid Legal! (Score:3, Insightful)

        by JuggleGeek ( 665620 )
        Pre-Paid legal gives you unlimited phone access to a lawyer and they will even write letters of make phone calls for you free with your membership ($26 or less per month) and if they did sue you for some reason, you would have 75 hrs of attorney time...

        Your redirect goes to prepaidlegal.com - known spammers.

        According to groups.google.com [google.com] there are 200+ reports of their spam in the sightings newsgroup. The vast majority of spam isn't reported. Having that many reports is pretty convincing evidence. T

  • Your wife made it public (Score:3, Insightful)

    by BravoZuluM ( 232200 ) on Friday October 10, 2003 @06:27AM (#7181313)
    As soon as your wife threw the application in the trash, she made it public knowledge. She is lucky that all you are recieving is the spam.
    • Can't cite the reference but there was a case where the FBI was going through a guy's trash for evidence. The guys sued that it was personal property. The courts sided with the Government saying that when he put the trash out, he made it public. In the case of the mall, it is a public place.

      My policy is to always remove and carry, ATM receipts, credit card slips and anything else with personal information. The stuff gets shredded and burned when I get home.
      • Malls are generally not public places. They are considered private property, at least for free speech concerns (Mall owners can exclude you from their property if they don't like what you say or do). Assuming that that determination carries over to who owns the trash (a reasonable assumption, since both are matters of constitutional law and a consistent application would make sense, but an assumption nonetheless), the application would have been private property at the time it was trashed. However, it wa

    • Re:Your wife made it public (Score:5, Insightful)

      by nairb107 ( 596097 ) * on Friday October 10, 2003 @06:42AM (#7181379)
      It doesn't matter if it's public knowledge. The credit card marketers submitted her application contract without a legally binding signature.
    • Fine, so it's 'public knowledge'. As soon as someone else used that information and submitted it, I would consider that Identity Theft.

      Probably not much you can do about it though without paying tons in lawyer fees. Sure would be nice if there was some hefty jail time for the person who did this. Putting the companies involved under a microscope for a long time would not be a bad idea either.
    • I don't think the point is whether someone has a right to your trash. If I told everyone in the world my personal information, lots of people could get credit cards in my name. However, they would all be committing fraud since I did not authorize them to do so. Anyway, the person who submitted your application illegally is the one to sue-- the credit card company is not liable unless the crook is an employee of theirs, which is not likely.
      • I would think the credit card company does have some liability since they processed an application without a signature. I don't know any legitimate credit card and loan company that would do that. Makes you wonder what the credit card company is. Probably something like "Third Federal Savings of Alaska" or some weird never heard of bank.
        • I would think the credit card company does have some liability since they processed an application without a signature.


          What makes you think the application didn't have a signature by the time the bank received it? If someone picks an unsigned application form from the garbage, the logical thing to do would be to sign it before submitting.

  • Just for life time suffering from spam....

    Michael
  • While she was at it, she should have signed a bunch of blank cheques and power of attorney forms and just threw them away.

    Why didn't she rip up the application? Or write void on it? Atleast then she could go back and say 'I didn't sign anything, prove it'
    • Yeah, so she wasn't as careful as she should have been. That doesn't mean that it wasn't a low-down dirty trick that she had played on her, though, and it in no way undermines the legitimacy of her complaint, no more so than if I complained of being mugged while walking down a crime-ridden street carrying an expensive laptop. Sure, I would have been a little careless, but that doesn't make it OK to mug me.
    • She can still say "I didn't sign anything, prove it", because she didn't sign anything, and thus they can't prove it.

      Someone reading your personal information from something you throw away is your problem, if you're careless enough to do so, but to actually remove her form from the garbage and sign her up for the VISA card without her permission is illegal enough, let alone actually going through the process of selling her personal information as they would have done if she had agreed to it...
    • While I agree that what she did was without thought, not thinking shouldn't be a reasonable excuse for being a victim of fraud.

      Why as a society should we consider those complicit who innocently leave their doors unlocked or their keys in the ignition? Our full venom should be directed toward people who illegally take advantage of others, not people who are naive and trusting.
    • This is why we use a shredder at home. We got a lot of credit card applications which, rather helpfully, have already been filled in. All you need to do is tick a couple of boxes and sign on the dotted line.

      If we had a hampster it would never be without bedding.

  • IAINWAL (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 3.5 stripes ( 578410 ) on Friday October 10, 2003 @06:29AM (#7181321)
    I am in no way a lawyer, but isn't forging (or in this case continuing action with a required signature) considered fraud? Sort of like slamming?

    If it isn't illegal, which I can't fathom, it certainly should be.

    • What I mean to say, is loss of information isn't valid, but being entered into a contract which requires your signature, yet without your signature.

      I'd persue that angle.
    • The people who offer these applications at places like the mall have an incentive to cheat. They are paid by the hour but are also paid a comission for every person they get to sign up. Somebody unscrupulous would have fished out an applicatoin out of the trash and submitted it so they could get the commission.

  • It isn't (Score:4, Insightful)

    by fleppir ( 563959 ) <arnic@hi . i s> on Friday October 10, 2003 @06:31AM (#7181326) Homepage Journal
    Plain and simple. Regarding her due diligence in protecting her personal information, no action can be taken in regard to disemination of the informatin on the page she 'carelessly' threw in the trash. At least that's what my legal sense tells me (IANAL)

    But the submittal of the form for a credit-card is another matter. It indicates someone forged her signature (even if the signature doesn't look anything like your wife's sig) and submitted the form, or someone accepted the form without a signature. Both could lead people in serious trouble with the law.

  • Paper Shredders (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ninthwave ( 150430 ) <slashdot@ninthwave.us> on Friday October 10, 2003 @06:32AM (#7181332) Homepage
    Why do you think businesses like paper shredders?
    Why do groups go dumpster diving?
    Never throw out paper that has information on you that you do not want to get out. Plus tearing up the form would have felt good at the time. It is not legal because the form needed a signature. The company should have the form stored you might be able to request it as evidence in a suit but you need to talk to lawyer.

    I think importantly people need to look at what happened here and realise, do not trust the law to protect you, in most cases the law needs to be broken before it can be used, and the deterents in this case are small compared to the profit. So protect yourselve with the best practices that you can. Don't throw out paper information unless you have torn it up, burnt it or shredded or are safe with it being found at the tip, dump, skip, bin, etc.
    • The company should have the form stored you might be able to request it as evidence in a suit but you need to talk to lawyer.

      Doesn't matter anymore though. Once your spam cherry gets popped there ain't no going back. It's all downhill from here. Once one of my accounts start to get spam I abandon it forever.

  • It can't be legal (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 10, 2003 @06:33AM (#7181337)
    She didn't sign the form, thus there was no consent, thus there was no contract. So it's not legal.

    Unfortunately you may have trouble doing anything about it at this point. Remember back when credit card slips used little pieces of carbon paper? I remember some customers demanding the carbons to carry home with them, or asking me to rip them up before discarding. And that was just a name attached to a number. Your wife probably left her SSN, address, phone number, etc. on that form.

    IANAL but your first priority is to get a credit report and see if a card has been issued in your wife's name. Second, get ahold of this company (by the neck) and demand that your wife's name comes out of the files.

  • It Could Have been worse. (Score:5, Informative)

    by nairb107 ( 596097 ) * on Friday October 10, 2003 @06:33AM (#7181339)
    It appears that someone fished this woman's application out of the garbage and submitted this anyways, without a signature

    That person was most likely the person who was trying to get her to sign up in the first place. They recieve a commission for each application, sometimes up to 50$ a piece. And since the application was submitted through them without an authorized signature, it's called Fraud. That's criminal. People have filed civil suits for less though. Give it a try.

    The most important lesson here is that she probably had her social security number on that form, and should have taken it home with her instead of leaving her personal information in a public place. Someone with whose agenda wasn't limited to making a few extra bucks could have used the info to steal her identity.

    • Re:It Could Have been worse. (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      How many times do we have to go over this. *Copying* someone's identity is not *stealing* since it does not deprive the owner of the ability to use that identity.

      ;)

    • And since the application was submitted through them without an authorized signature, it's called Fraud.

      I really don't see anything fraudulent here. Unethical and slimy, yes, but not fraudulent. The CC company can give you a credit card; you don't have to accept it. Now if you tried to get a credit card by giving them bad info, then you might be charged with fraud.
      IOW, if I walk up to you and say "here, take my car. It's almost paid off." I'm not committing fraud; I'm offering you a gift with strings att

  • See a lawyer. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Sheetrock ( 152993 ) on Friday October 10, 2003 @06:34AM (#7181346) Homepage Journal
    This is bound to be subject to state and local laws (furthermore, I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advise but just helpful tips), so no advice you see here is going to be more helpful than that you'll get from a friendly neighborhood attorney.

    However, this does bring to mind some things people should do to protect themselves from information fraud:

    • Shred or finely tear any documents with personal information. If it's a mailing, shred the envelope and any advertising with it as well.
    • Never purchase from a telemarketer, a TV commercial, or online stores. Telemarketing firms like to share information, and hire some pretty colorful people.
    • Put as little information on your check as possible (name only is best, or name and address).
    • Only use your credit card for paying bills.
    • Get a P.O. box.
    • Don't rent cars or purchase cell phones.
    This is just a shortlist of information I've been told; basically, one has to be vigilant but also realize that much of this is beyond your control.

    • Re:See a lawyer. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Zachary Kessin ( 1372 )
      This is good advice, paper shreaders are cheap (at least ones for home usage). Get one that does cross cut if you can for not to much more money.

      However some of this advice may not be practical, For example there may be cases where you have to rent a car for some reason. (say you are out of town or need to move and want a van).

      You have to consider the "cost" in terms of loss of privacy vs the benifit to you life. I do buy stuff online, but limit where I buy it. You may want to get a mail alias somewhere t
    • * Get a P.O. box.
      * Don't rent cars or purchase cell phones.

      Don't forget:
      Wear a tin-foil hat at all times, this prevents their mind control rays from reaching you.

      Avoid leaving your house for prolonged periods of time and always ensure a hidden surveillence camera is running while you're gone. That's when THEY will come and install bugs to easedrop on you.

      Never eat the blue M&Ms. Just trust me on this one.. let's just say blue == best mind control wavelength. I can't say anymore.. they'

  • It seems a more likely explanation is that your SPAM and telemarketing calls spiked because everybody has been getting a crapload more spam and sales calls lately.

    Or it could be that some other factor, like you buying a DNS registration, happened about the same time.

    The only other alternative is to believe that some minimum wage-slave who spends all day pestering people with clipboards nefariously dug her info out of the trash, forged her signature, and submitted it against her will. I seriously doubt on

  • but the criminal is probably the one that filled the rest of it and mailed it.

    however, you might just be screwed, most likely they don't have any means to retrieve the information and mark it as "don't use this anymore". but look at it brightly, at least she got her visa? i wouldn't really have been surprised if they had just sent her some adverts to places where she could apply for one.. however if you do by some freak accident find out who sent the form then sue/report to officials/ask for investigation

  • At the very least... (Score:5, Informative)

    by dWhisper ( 318846 ) on Friday October 10, 2003 @06:49AM (#7181411) Homepage Journal
    This would be a matter of Identity Theaft and Misrepresentation without conscent. I think the more interesting thing to consider is that since there is a credit card involved, this could constitute as wire fruad. That is a much more serious offense than the other two.

    I would have to assume that if there is a disclaimer that Visa can sell the information, there would have to be a disclaimer saying they are not liable for the information's use once it is sold. However, if the actual volume is coming in like it is, an easier route would be harrassment class action suits against benefitting parties. Their information was gained illegally, and they are liable for that. So both Visa and the Spam companies could get burned bad, if this is pressed. The person who took the application could be held responsible as well, since they accepted and processed an application without proper verification of identity.

    The fact that the person got a credit card is inconsequential, or that no one else took the information is just lucky. It would have been pretty easy to just copy it to a new application and change the address.

  • In Europe this would be clearly illegal (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jjon ( 555854 ) on Friday October 10, 2003 @06:52AM (#7181424)
    Europe's "Data Protection" directive & the corresponding national laws make this illegal under criminal law.

    The company could be fined, and the directors could go to jail.

    Then again, in the UK companies used to be required to provide a "please don't sell my personal data" check box ("opt-out"). I'm not sure whether this is still legal, or whether the European law has tightened this so it has to be a "please *DO* sell my personal data" check box ("opt-in"). So she would have been able to apply without getting spam.

    #include "disclaimer/IANAL.h"

    • In the UK it already is as it breaches Data Protection legislation going back to the 80s. Even before considering the sale of the data, simply collecting the data without consent is an offence in its own right.

      To stay the right side of the law, data users have to follow the Data Protection Principles [dataprotection.gov.uk] which are a high-level summary of the law.

      As well as the basic penalties of fines and jail for directors, the Information Commissioner can walk into any company and turn off their databases on simple susp

    • This is indeed still the case in the UK, any form which collects personal data must have a "No you may not give my data to anyone else" option, and that includes web forms served from the UK.

    • Under the UK Data Protection Act they have to have a check box with something like "Please do not share my information with other organisations or use it for other purpoises than it was collected." and if they fail to honour it can get royally shafted in court. For certain sorts of data which are considered highly confidential (e.g. medical information) they have to have a checkbox with something like "Please do share my information..." and cannot share the information unless you check the box (often sign

  • Similar thing happened to my brother, but no form (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rufusdufus ( 450462 ) on Friday October 10, 2003 @07:05AM (#7181470)
    One day my brother got a credit card in the mail. And lots of spam and calls too. Unlike the article above however, he never had any contact with these people. He has no idea how it happened. He called the credit card company and they claimed they had a signed copy of the agreement. He asked them to fax it to him. They refused, but did 'cancel' the credit card. Spam and phone calls still come though.

    Stuff like this makes you doubt the quality of our judgment when we put high tech into hands of the masses. Like handing a gun to a baby.
  • is what u guys need in the States, without it you have no pivacy so get over it. (cf Scott Mcneally's comments on the subject).

  • Yes, I'm a lawyer . . . (Score:5, Informative)

    by raresilk ( 100418 ) <raresilk@macNETBSD.com minus bsd> on Friday October 10, 2003 @07:13AM (#7181493)
    (With the disclaimer that I only am licensed to practice law in California, and although I am in the process of starting a solo practice, I am chained to a law firm for the next month or so and thus can't initiate my own cases. and this is not legal advice, yadda yadda - see sig)

    Some of the aspects of this story sound legally questionable. For example, a credit card company's acceptance of an unsigned credit card application, in general. But also, since there was no signature, your wife (although extremely careless and naive for throwing her personal information in a public trash can) never consented to the "fine print" which was the ostensible hook for the company to distribute her info to spammers, telemarketers, other vermin. True, if someone fished her info out of the trash and used it for spamming, she might not have much of a remedy - although some states have put anti-spamming laws into effect, they typically only give a remedy against the spammer, and they make themselves hard to find and identify - who do you sue? But it sounds, from your account, like you can prove the unsigned application was actually submitted to VISA, and may be able to prove that VISA sold her info to the pond scum with knowledge that she had not consented. If that were so, you might have some kind of remedy against VISA or the bank that issued the VISA. If you are in a jurisdiction like California which has a privacy right incorporated in its state constitution, your position might be even stronger.

    I would recommend consulting a lawyer who is licensed to practice in your jurisdiction. If you don't know a lawyer, try contacting law schools in your area or your State Bar Association to ask if there are any referral services they would recommend to look at a case of potential privacy violation. This is better than picking up the phone book at random.

    • What particularly occurs to me is that the person fishing the application out may have scribbled some signature on it themselves. In which case, and IANAL, it's forgery, or similar. Right?
  • ...that the submitter of this question isn't being entirely honest; or perhaps his wife wasn't.

    I would be willing to bet that the little detail omitted is that she actually did sign the contract before noticing the fine print and tossing it in the trash. It's sad that the people would sink so low as to fish it out, but that would be entirely legal if it did in fact have her signature on it.

    At least I'd believe that over a credit card marketing company risking MAJOR lawsuit (forgery, fraud).

    • At least I'd believe that over a credit card marketing company risking MAJOR lawsuit (forgery, fraud).

      I'm sure it's not company policy to fish out applications; it's probably a case of a minimum wage employee trying to meet some incentive. "Get 100 applications today and get an extra $50", or a free duffle bag, or movie tickets, or whatever. I could see someone forging a signature in that situation.
    • umm . . . read the article. It says that they obtained a copy of the application (presumably from VISA or the bank), and there was an "N/A" on the signature line. Unless I'm missing something, that means that there was no signature on that line, and someone marked the signature line "N/A" (not available) in hopes that the application would go through anyway.

      Also, you seem to be pretty naive about credit card companies. There have been several major nationwide lawsuits against banks and credit card comp

  • The quick way out (assuming that nobody has used the credit card - use would serve as "ratification" of the contract for the card) is to demand a copy of the signed credit aplication from the card issuer. If the application for the card had a signature that was not that of the woman reported here then all this arises from a forged signature on an application for credit.

    The forgery might well require the testimony of a questioned documents examiner, but the forger is liable for damages.

    The legal matter is
  • If I were you I'd be more worried about the potential for Identity Theft.

    Here's what I would do ...

    • Order a 3 in 1 credit report and check if fraudulent accounts have been opened in her name.
    • Put a credit alert on her SSN with all 3 credit reporting agencies, make it that much harder for fraudulent accounts to appear on this account.
    • Sign up for one of those services that notify you whenever there is any change to your credit file. (I use Credit Secure from Amex).

    And please people, if you dont shred

  • ...isn't even worth what you pay for it. (Yeah, it's free of financial charge. And it's worthless. So one might think it'd be worth exactly what you pay. But you're also probably investing time reading all the responses to your request for info, and as long as the value of your time is higher than zero, that makes this a negative-sum proposition.)

    Lots of people have said ask a lawyer. Yeah, do that, if you know any lawyers who aren't already so sick of giving you free legal advice that they got caller ID s

  • This happened to me. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by caffeineboy ( 44704 ) <<ude.uso> <ta> <22.eromdiks>> on Friday October 10, 2003 @07:58AM (#7181630)
    Well, not exactly the same thing, but here's what happened:

    Same scenario, I applied for a credit card at one of those folding table operations where they have some crappy t-shirt or something that they'll give you for filling out applications. Anyhow, I needed a card, so I filled out an application for one of the three cards that this table was offering. They pushed me and asked that I apply for all 3 but I declined, saying that I only wanted one card, and didn't need three.

    I went on my way and a couple of weeks later, I get all 3 of the cards in the mail. This pissed me off more than a little, as I am sure that there must be more than one law against falsifying financial documents.

    I placed calls to the customer service numbers at the two cards that I had not applied for and told them my story. In both cases I was fed a line about the applications being un-trackable.

    Now, this may or may not have been true, but the real information that I took away from the experience is that the companies didn't care about this kind of behavior. Disappointing, but you have to look at the angle - how will caring about this make them any money?

    The people that run these tables are paid per application. If they are not made accountable for this kind of thing, why wouldn't they do it?

    So good luck, but personally I'd just get a good spam filter and be glad that it was just false submission of your data and not identity theft or something like that.
  • Come on - you take detailed personal records, fold the paper, and put it in a publicly accessible and open bin in a crowded public area when you *know* that people who want that information are watching you. Random bypassers could get this piece of paper by *accident* for christs sakes.

    And you want to sue *them* ?

    I am terribly sorry to be cynical about this, but what did you expect? Honesty and ethics? From someone who is paid solely by the amount of personal data they succeed in gathering? It may not
  • In America, you can sue anyone for anything.

  • My story (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Quixote ( 154172 ) on Friday October 10, 2003 @08:38AM (#7181858) Homepage Journal
    One day I got one of those myriad of credit card applications.
    I did the following: wrote, in large black marker across the application, "DO NOT SEND ME MORE OFFERS". Nothing else. Crossed out the entire application.

    A few weeks later, I get the credit card in the mail.

    I asked them for a copy of my application; but all I got was a printout of the database record, which had the same information (name, address) that was there on the original application.

    Even without my signature, they accepted the application and sent me the credit card.

    There's _got_ to be some law against this.


  • This is the Court of Chancery, which has its decaying houses and its blighted lands in every shire, which has its worn-out lunatic in every madhouse and its dead in every churchyard, which has its ruined suitor with his slipshod heels and threadbare dress borrowing and begging through the round of every man's acquaintance, which gives to monied might the means abundantly of wearying out the right, which so exhausts finances, patience, courage, hope, so overthrows the brain and breaks the heart, that there i
  • in my case, a credit card was isued to me (while I wasin college) without me even signing up for one!

    The only way I found out about the card (which had been sent to my old college address, where I no longer was) was went I went to get a car loan and they asked about a maxed out credit card.

    It took a lawyer and a lot of time and effort (mostly on the lawyers part) to clear that mess up, but it impacted me greatly during the process.

    There was talk of a lawsuit, but the lawyer advised against it (he wasn't
  • What are you going to sue for? Taking advantage of an idiot?

    Your wife did something rather silly, and some scum-sucking salesman looking for a $50 commission took advantage of her lapse in judgement.

    Instead of making an ass out of yourselves and the wasting the courts time with a lawsuit, maybe you should close the account (assuming that you called them before activating it) and ask to be removed from marketing lists.

    You haven't suffered any damages other than receiving spam -- which may have nothing to

  • I used to work in credit (Score:5, Informative)

    by onyxruby ( 118189 ) <onyxrubyNO@SPAMcomcast.net> on Friday October 10, 2003 @08:54AM (#7181937)
    I used to work in credit before switching over to tech. I am not a lawyer, I just used to deal with this stuff professionally for a few years. I am just providing information to point you in the right direction.

    The short of the matter is that they have probably pulled a copy of your wifes credit bureau report in order to issue the card. Since she did not sign the application, which they would have had to have forged, she did not give consent to have her credit report pulled.

    Reference the FCRA [ftc.gov] (Fair Credit Reporting Act) 15 U.S.C. 1681. In particular reference 604 Permissible purposes of consumer reports [15 U.S.C. 1681b]. They have used the report in a manner not permissable.

    The crux of the matter is that you may sue them for violating the FCRA. Reference 616 Civil liability for willful noncompliance [15 U.S.C. 1681n]. Since they forged her signature, they have wilfully broken this law.

    1)(A) any actual damages sustained by the consumer as a result of the failure or damages of not less than $100 and not more than $1,000; or

    (B) in the case of liability of a natural person for obtaining a consumer report under false pretenses or knowingly without a permissible purpose, actual damages sustained by the consumer as a result of the failure or $1,000, whichever is greater;

    (2) such amount of punitive damages as the court may allow; and

    (3) in the case of any successful action to enforce any liability under this section, the costs of the action together with reasonable attorney's fees as determined by the court.

    You can also nail their ass with this:
    619. Obtaining information under false pretenses [15 U.S.C. 1681q]

    Any person who knowingly and willfully obtains information on a consumer from a consumer reporting agency under false pretenses shall be fined under title 18, United States Code, imprisoned for not more than 2 years, or both.
  • I filled out this application for a credit card one time, but then decided I didn't want it and went to throw it out. Well, I was in the city, and like a cop, a garbage can is never around when you need one. Finally, after some searching, I found one. It was the coolest garbage can! It was this big blue box with a rounded top, and it had this lid that you pull open and slip whatever trash you have in. It just slides down inside and you never have to see it or smell it again. They even had a sticker th

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Our business in life is not to succeed but to continue to fail in high spirits. -- Robert Louis Stevenson

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