The Same Identity-Theft Message, Filed 33 Times From 21 Places Against Three Credit Bureaus

The Text

The text is a short first-person statement. It says the writer's personal information was used without permission and fraudulent accounts were opened in their name. It says they filed police reports, contacted the credit bureaus and notified the creditors, and the false accounts still appear on their report. It asks for their identity to be restored and the inaccurate information removed.

It contains no dates, no account names, no amounts and no company names. Those details are exactly what a bureau needs to investigate, and they are missing.

Where It Appeared

Kibbo's template analysis found 33 narratives with the same text once capitalisation, numbers and punctuation are ignored. They were received between 2 and 16 December 2025 and came from 21 distinct locations (published ZIP code, or state where the ZIP is masked) across 9 states. They were filed against three companies: TransUnion (16), Equifax (10) and Experian (7).

We classify the group as a shared template because the same text came from two or more different locations. This is a lower bound: two people in the same ZIP code would count as one location.

The example complaint, ID 17753939, was received on 4 December 2025, against TransUnion, under "Problem with a company's investigation into an existing problem".

What the Companies Said

For the example complaint, TransUnion closed it "with non-monetary relief" and chose not to give a public response. We did not review each company's response for the other 32 narratives in the group, so this page makes no claim about them. Company responses are self-reported and not verified by the CFPB.

How to Read It

A shared template does not mean the complaint is false. A person with a real identity-theft problem can use a text someone gave them. What the data measures is standardisation, not legitimacy.

Across 2022 to 2025, within credit reporting complaints about "Incorrect information on your report", Kibbo found that 35% of original narratives were closed with non-monetary relief (for example, a correction), against 51% of shared templates. That is a correlation, not proof that a template works better.

What You Can Learn From This

• If you use a template, add what only you know: dates, the name of each account, the police or FTC report numbers, and what each company told you.
• Say which company you are writing to. Three bureaus can receive the same message and each needs the specifics of its own file.
• Keep proof of every step. The text says the writer filed reports and notified creditors, but gives nothing a company could check.

Documents & Evidence

Primary source: the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database and the CFPB Narratives Archive; analysis in the Kibbo CFPB Complaint Vault Dataset. Methodology is in the dataset's README and research log.

A CFPB complaint is the consumer's account, not a finding of fact. Company responses are self-reported and are not verified by the CFPB.

Related Kibbo Tools

• Credit Report Dispute Letter Generator
• Identity Theft Recovery Action Plan
• Credit Report Error Checklist