Equifax has been ordered to pay 18.6 million dollars after failing to correct inaccurate information on a woman’s credit report. Julie Miller, who resides in the state of Oregon, had spent two years trying to repair her credit report which had information from another consumer on it. Between 2009 and 2011, Miller contacted Equifax eight times in an attempt to correct inaccuracies, such as collection attempts, erroneous accounts, wrong social security number and birthday. Every single attempt made by Miller according to the law suit was ignored by Equifax. “There was damage to her reputation, a breach of her privacy and the lost opportunity to seek credit” said Miller’s lawyer Justin Baxter.

A Federal Trade Commission study conducted earlier this year took 1,001 consumers who reviewed 2,968 of their credit reports, and found that 21% of the time errors had occurred. Most shocking was in 5% of those cases credit had been denied based on inaccurate information. Miller first realized an issue when she was denied credit by a bank in December of 2009. Miller immediately contacted Equifax and was provided with forms to complete and fax in order to update her information. In addition, Miller also requested a copy of her credit report (by law, consumers are entitled to a copy of their credit report annually). Equifax did nothing to neither correct the information and did not provide Miller with a copy of her credit report.

Miller found similar problems with the other credit bureaus, but they took the necessary steps to correct the information. Tim Klein, a spokesman for Equifax was unaware of the details surrounding the judgment, and therefore had no comment.

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