ISPC Class Action: Unauthorized Credit Checks After Calls?

An Alabama woman says a finance company illegally made inquiries into her credit report without her permission, and that she isn't the only one to be harmed by the company's alleged practice.

Alabama resident Kali Calloway filed the class action lawsuit against ISPC Inc — doing business as The Independent Savings Plan Co --- on May 29 in a Florida federal court, alleging violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. 

According to the lawsuit, ISPC followed up cold marketing calls to consumers with hard inquiries to their credit reports that they had not consented to, even when the consumers explicitly said they weren't interested in making any purchases. 

Understanding the Fair Credit Reporting Act

The Fair Credit Reporting Act is a consumer protection law which regulates the activities of credit reporting agencies and users of credit reports. 

It provides rights to consumers who will be affected by the use of information collected about them. Congress designed the law to preserve the consumer’s right to privacy by safeguarding the confidentiality of the information that consumer reporting agencies hold about them, the lawsuit says. 

The act protects the consumer’s right to privacy by prohibiting any release of consumer reports unless the release is for a permissible purpose, and the consumer gives their consent. 

Allegations of Unauthorized Credit Checks

Calloway says, in February last year she got a marketing phone call from Smart Alarm System, during which inquiries were made about home ownership and her existing alarm systems.  

During the call, Calloway says she was transferred to a manager who told her she qualified for an alert system, but needed to verify some information. Calloway says she gave the manager her full name, address, phone number, and email, but not her social security number. 

She says the manager began to request payment options for a new security system, which she refused, saying she needed to discuss the purchase with her husband. 

That same day, Calloway said she received a text message from CoreHome, offering services. Plaintiff explicitly expressed disinterest and requested to not be called again. Later that week, Calloway says she was alerted by her credit monitoring service to the opening of a new account in her name. 

Plaintiff discovered that ISPC, a finance company working with CoreHome, had opened an account associated with CoreHome Security.  

"A review of the credit reports indicated unauthorized credit inquiries," the lawsuit states. 

"In Plaintiff’s Experian credit report, ISPC logged a hard inquiry. Additionally, Defendant submitted an unauthorized credit report hard inquiry on Plaintiff’s March 2023 TransUnion credit report and March 15, 2023, Equifax credit report. Plaintiff did not authorize ISPC to conduct any credit inquiries." 

Calloway alleges that ISPC violated her rights by obtaining her consumer report information without consent, a practice she believes has affected numerous others across the United States. 

In the ISPC unauthorized credit check class action lawsuit, Calloway aims to represent all individuals whose credit reports were similarly accessed without authorization within the past two years. Calloway seeks class certification, damages, legal fees, court costs, and a jury trial to address these alleged violations.

Case Details

• Lawsuit: Calloway v. ISPC Inc.
• Case Number: 8:24-cv-01307
• Court: U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Florida

Plaintiffs' Attorneys

• Mohammad Kazerouni and Ryan L. McBride (Kazerouni Law Group APC)