Under FACT Act requirements designed to prevent identity theft, which statement is true?

• A. A consumer reporting agency must notify the person requesting a consumer report of any address discrepancy.
• B. The disposal of consumer information is dictated solely by internal policy.
• C. If a consumer reporting agency blocks information because of identity theft, it must notify the person who provided that information.
• D. If a consumer provides sufficient information, the consumer reporting agency must include a fraud alert in the consumer report.

Answer: (A)

Address discrepancy notifications help prevent identity theft in the credit reporting process. Under FACTA, when a consumer requests a report and the address they provide doesn’t match the address on file at the consumer reporting agency, the agency must notify the requester about that discrepancy so the requester can take steps to verify the consumer’s identity before using the report. This alert acts as a safeguard against someone attempting to use a different address to obtain credit.

Disposal rules aren’t correctly described as being dictated solely by internal policy; FACTA requires secure disposal practices and specific guidelines beyond any internal policy. Blocking information due to identity theft isn’t framed correctly here either—the law’s emphasis is on notifying the requester of address mismatches to prompt verification. Fraud alerts are placed by consumer action or specific identity-theft circumstances, not automatically simply because a consumer provides enough information.