The facts on Experian and Court Ventures in North America

While this is an unfortunate and isolated issue – one that we take very seriously and continue to address – let us share some key points with you to provide clarity on Experian’s position.

1. No Experian database was accessed. The data in question have at all relevant times been owned and maintained, not by Experian, but by a company called US Info Search.
2. Further, Experian’s only involvement was that it purchased the assets of a company, Court Ventures, that provided access to US Info Search’s data to Court Ventures’ customers. Under that contract, customers of Court Ventures, including the criminal in this case, could access US Info Search’s data. This was not an Experian database, and specifically, this was not a credit database.
3. Court Ventures was selling the data in question to the criminal for over a year before Experian acquired the assets of Court Ventures.
4. Furthermore, any implication that there was a breach of 200 million records is entirely false and misleading – while the size of the database may be 200 million, that does not mean the total number of records were accessed.
5. Lastly, Experian discontinued the sales of this data immediately upon learning of the problem and worked closely with law enforcement to bring this criminal to justice, (the perpetrator has recently pleaded guilty).

We are treating the matter seriously and have filed a lawsuit against the former owners of Court Ventures for permitting the sale of US Info Search’s data to Ngo (the perpetrator), and intend to hold those individuals fully responsible for their conduct in establishing access to the data for an identity thief unbeknownst to Experian.

For further information:

Gerry Tschopp
Senior Vice President, Public Affairs, Experian North America
Phone: 1 714 830 7756
Email: gerry.tschopp@experian.com