cator woolford equifax

Retail Credit attempted to make up the slack by increasing automobile insurance reporting; by the following year, more than one-fifth of the agency's business was contributed by this division. The company sold stock to the public for the first time in 1965. These included that it collected "facts, statistics, inaccuracies and rumors about virtually every phase of a person's life; his marital troubles, jobs, school history, childhood, sex life, and political activities." [25][26] An Equifax manager, Sudhakar Reddy Bonthu, also pleaded guilty to insider trading and received a sentence of 8 months of home confinement. Heres a look at how the Atlanta-based company grew into the credit reporting giant that it is today. In the late 1920s Cator Woolford befriended Franklin D. Roosevelt when the future president began visiting Warm Springs, seeking a cure for his polio. They started their credit investigations by going door-to-door among merchants, asking about their customers and noting the findings in ledgers. [29][30][31], By September 2019, however, Equifax had added qualifications and "hurdles" to its claims process which put in doubt whether the previously announced cash settlement of $125 per affected consumer would actually be awarded. Eventually the Frazers and Lanes acquired the former estate of Cator Woolford (founder of the Retail Credit Company, now Equifax), 39 acres located in Lake Claire/Druid Hills. This changed in 1999 when the agency started offering services to credit consumer sectors. As consumers, we often take for granted all the hard work that goes into building a great company. This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. By the end of the company's second decade of existence, Retail Credit was thoroughly established as a significant partner in the life insurance business. [17], In February 2016, Equifax acquired the Australasian company Veda, the largest credit reference agency in Australia at the time. In 1991 Equifax also abandoned a planned joint database project with Lotus Development Corporation that would have made available to small businesses a wide array of demographic information at microneighborhood levels; a consumer outcry and negative media attention led to the project's demise. On two occasions, the agency was fined by the Federal Trade Commission, and this was for violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The company responded that such findings were never used in credit-rating evaluations but were limited to its insurance and consumer investigations businesses (which were later spun off). By 1915 Retail Credit's earliest work compiling lists of good and bad credit risks in the Atlanta area had dwindled to almost nothing. The headquarters of the agency is in Atlanta, Georgia, and it operates in 24 countries in Asia Pacific, Europe, and America. 20042023 Georgia Humanities, University of Georgia Press. The same cybersecurity firm was hired following the MayJuly breach. The enterprise was newly christened the Retail Credit Company, Inc., on December 29, 1913. The trouble-plagued ChoicePoint made headlines in 2005 for leaking consumers confidential information to identity thieves. The company's operations had already been divided into four divisions: insurance information services, its traditional strength; credit services; marketing services, the newest division; and Canadian operations, which were consolidated into one company, Equifax Canada Inc., in June 1989. By 1913 Retail Credit had developed a special form for automobile insurance, to be completed by the investigator. "[45], According to an October 2017 report from Motherboard, around December 2016, a security researcher examining Equifax's servers found that an online portal, created for Equifax employees only, was accessible to the open Internet. Equifax Similar Companies Jobs Equifax History FAQs How Old Is Equifax? In the ensuing years, the volume of requests for this new service increased dramatically. Also proving helpful was the advent of credit bureau associations which had begun springing up as the exchange of information between fellow creditors became more common. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Some of the company's data storage equipment is pictured circa 1978. Privacy Policy. Pushed to the limit, Retail Credit finally allowed women to work as inspectors, in most cases permitting wives to take over their absent husbands' jobs. or don't show this againI am good at figuring things out. "[71][77], In April 2014, Equifax was sued in New York federal court by God Gazarov, who claimed the company erroneously reports him as having no credit history because of his unusual first name. This heightened activity was fueled by the 1993 decision to subcontract the running of Equifax's computer operation to IBM, a move that freed Equifax's large technical staff to develop new ways of packaging the company's data in consultation with its customers. There he supervised the compilation of a list of customers, with indications of their creditworthiness, for the local Retail Grocer's Association. The business soon became very successful. "All you had to do was put in a search term and get millions of results, just instantlyin cleartext, through a web app," they said. In October 2010, Equifax announced it was acquiring Anakam, an identity verification software company headquartered in San Diego, California, which invented and pioneered SMS (text-message based) two-factor authentication. [citation needed] Business customers include retailers, insurance firms, healthcare providers, utilities, government agencies, as well as banks, credit unions, personal and specialty finance companies and other financial institutions. Its 2005 market value of nearly $5 billion makes it one of the largest publicly traded companies in the state. If you have questions, please contact [emailprotected]. In the late 1920s Woolford befriended Franklin D. Roosevelt and was one of the founders of the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute. [4] Equifax collects and aggregates information on over 800 million individual consumers and more than 88 million businesses worldwide. Equifax is the oldest and largest credit bureau in existence today. Try again later. The vulnerability in which Chinese hackers leveraged was CVE-.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#3a3;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}2017-5638,[22] the hackers managed to stay in Equifax systems undetected for approximately 134 days. After a decade-long court battle, Retail Credit was allowed to retain the purchases. It has employed more than 32,000 workers globally, and it is traded at the New York Stock Exchange under the name EFX. As of Apr 06 -3.03 / -1.52%. Today, we know that company as Equifax. Veda had previously acquired the Australian market research and opinion polling company ReachTEL in September 2015, which continues to produce opinion polls in Australia. The company planned to handle all phases of the operation, including selection of potential customers, production of mailing brochures, handling of telephone inquiries, verification of credit applications, and property appraisal. "[42], According to senator Michael Crapo, "The amount of data that the private industry and Government collect and store is very concerning. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Are you adding a grave photo that will fulfill this request? As manager of this memorial you can add or update the memorial using the Edit button below. The origins of these gardens date back to the 1920's and was once home to Cator Woolford himself - one of the leading founders of what we know today as Equifax. Likewise, Equifax gained the capability to provide additional types of information to clients. The Cator Woolford Gardens is a mission-driven event space for life's most important moments. Equifax moved into marketing databases, which allowed patrons to target their most likely customers. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. New Georgia Encyclopedia, 03 November 2006, https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/business-economy/equifax/. The company would also no longer keep tabs on customers' buying histories for the purpose of placing shoppers in a range of categories from "luxury buyers" to "coupon clippers." According to the reporting, despite receiving this warning from the security researcher, the affected portal was not closed until six months later in June, well after the March and MayJuly breaches had begun. Their downtown office quickly expanded, as the brothers offered life and auto insurance. In 2015, Equifax was ranked number 13 on the American Banker FinTech Forward list. Founded by brothers Cator and Guy Woolford, each got their start in the credit business as grocers, where they compiled lists of customers based on their creditworthiness. (to see if you were a victim of this hack, please. The company has been in existence for over a decade, and it has stood the test of time to be among the largest consumer credit reporting agency of all time. The agency has an operating income of $900 million, and its net income was estimated to be $600.1 million last year. (ChoicePoint and Equifax did not then, nor do they now, share information or any relationship.). [12] It is alleged that the hearings prompted the Retail Credit Company to change its name to Equifax in 1975 to improve its image. The company's purchase of Telecredit was complicated by a sizable drop in the value of Equifax stock during 1990, as investors grew concerned about the stability of the company's profits in an economic downturn. Flowers added to the memorial appear on the bottom of the memorial or here on the Flowers tab. Add to your scrapbook. Late in 1991, the company bought out its British partner to form Equifax Europe. Beautiful, intimate, and all-inclusive. Many years later, after Woolfords death in 1944, his former Druid Hills estate became the site of the Frazer Center, a rehabilitation facility for children and adults with disabilities, and the Cator Woolford Gardens, designed by landscape architect Edward Daugherty. In addition, the company modified the processes for correcting mistakes in its files, making it easier for consumers to set the record straight. [32][33][34], On 19 December 2019, a federal judge in Atlanta awarded class-action attorneys representing consumers approximately $77.5 million, suggesting that individual consumers might expect to receive around six or seven dollars. Found more than one record for entered Email, You need to confirm this account before you can sign in. Cator actually got the idea from his grocery business, where they collected customers' names and evidence of credit worthiness. [60][61] The malware was disguised as an update for Adobe Flash. The increased competition resulted in a serious slump in Retail Credit's life insurance and credit reporting activities in 1921. Other failings were on the exposure of American salary data, and website malware. The company started providing information to accident insurers and soliciting work related to fire insurance. Here's What You Can Do", "Want that $125 from Equifax? Equifax is 124 years old. In the first full year of U.S. military involvement, the company lost 1,200 workers. Despite Equifax's flat earnings, the company moved past its main competitor, TRW, to seize the lead in market share among credit bureaus in the beginning of 1992. Today's Change. In 1934, he co-founded the short-lived Correct Address Company, with Edwin K. Large . By 1994 Equifax had acquired three more healthcare information firms, giving it a substantial presence in claims processing. Under this law, consumers were given the right to gain access to their credit files and correct errors in them. Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person. Three years later, Retail Credit ran afoul of the new federal regulations and was charged with violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate, or jump to a slide with the slide dots. Having already moved into check verification and credit card processing in the early 1990s, Equifax diversified again in 1992 through the acquisition of Health Economics Corporation, which moved the company into the field of healthcare information. In addition to consumer and commercial credit information services, Equifax has a diversified array of operations including payment services, software, modeling, analytics, consulting, and direct-to-consumer services. The U.S. entry into World War II had a serious impact on Retail Credit's business. 2015 mmwoodruff (Atlas Obscura User) The Cator Woolford Gardens, a 39-acre park just a few miles outside of downtown Atlanta, Georgia, are one of the last remaining historic estates anywhere in . Equifax collects and provides data through the National Consumer Telecom and Utilities Exchange (NCTUE), an exchange of non-credit data including consumer payment history on telecommunications and utility accounts. Miller contacted Equifax repeatedly in writing and over the telephone, but Equifax refused to delete dozens of false collection accounts from Miller's credit report. Equifax also confirmed at least 209,000 consumers' credit card credentials were taken in the attack. [81], Consumer lawsuits claiming damages under the FCRA have been successful in small claims court. For instance, in 1908 the company began issuing reports for automobile liability insurers. [42] Equifax and other credit monitoring agencies are required by law to provide US residents with one free credit file disclosure every 12 months; the Annualcreditreport.com website incorporates data from U.S. Equifax credit records. [39][40], In February 2023, it was announced Equifax had acquired the Barueri-headquartered credit bureau, Boa Vista Servios for $596 million. Woolford also spearheaded fund-raising efforts for the construction of Georgia Hall, one of several buildings Roosevelt erected in Warm Springs. In addition, the agency sells fraud prevention and credit monitoring services to their customers. Where It All Started He established the Thomas Guy Woolford Charitable Trust, which is today administered by SunTrust Banks (now Truist). Fostering inclusive communities is the heart of Frazers mission. Residents in the United Kingdom (15.2 million) and Canada (about 19,000) were also impacted. For many years, Equifax has operated mostly on the business-to-business sector, where it sold consumer credit and insurance reports. The company continued expansion by opening new branch offices throughout the decades following the war. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. The email does not appear to be a valid email address. With his brother Guy, Cator Woolford started the Retail Credit Company, the precursor to Equifax. By 1944 the volume of reports produced had sunk to six million. (U.K.); Transax pty Ltd. (Australia); Transax S.N.C. In 2003, the FTC took Equifax to court for the same reason and settled its lawsuit with the company for a fine of $250,000. Principal Operating Units: North American Information Services; Payment Services; Equifax Europe; Equifax Latin America; Knowledge Engineering. Boasting operations in 18 countries and sales in more than 45, Equifax holds leading positions in consumer and commercial credit information in Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Peru, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); You have entered an incorrect email address. In 1948, Anne Lane was searching for a program for her daughter Anita, who had cerebral palsy. In June 1901 Retail Credit branched out into another industry, as it began providing so-called "moral hazard" information on potential policyholders to the Equitable Life Assurance Society. While this type of operation was inherently local, Retail Credit had become interested in activities that could be pursued on a broader scale. [42], Equifax also offers fraud prevention products based on device fingerprinting such as "FraudIQ Authenticate Device. [11], In 1970, after the company had computerized its records, which led to wider availability of the personal information it held, the U.S. Congress held hearings that led to the enactment of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Try again. Once the estate of Cator Woolford, founder of the company now known as Equifax, these lovely grounds include the beautiful Cator Woolford Gardens. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. As one of the key players in the increasingly electronic world of commerce, however, Equifax was likely to survive the thrive. [42] Credit grantors use this information to decide what sort of products or services to offer their customers, and on what terms. This was one of the last parcels in Druid Hills to be purchased, ostensibly because so much of it was considered Its headquarters are located on Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta. Another achievement is being named a Top Technology Provider, Top Workplace, and it was the winner of the InformationWeek Elite 100, among many others. Failed to delete memorial. In 1920, however, Retail Credit's insurance business suffered a serious blow when a consortium of insurance companies formed the American Service Bureau to provide members with investigative reports of the sort that Retail Credit supplied. Where would you like to work? And though Equifaxs story isnt quite as tenured as Experian, its roots date back to the late1800swhen it began as a grocery store. [16] Certegy effectively became a subsidiary of Fidelity National Financial as a result of this reverse acquisition merger (See Certegy and Fidelity National Information Services for further information).[16]. [72] The award included $18.4 million in punitive damages, and $180,000 in compensatory damages. Learn more about managing a memorial . As a result of its growing insurance business, Guy Woolford opened a second company office in Dallas, Texas, in March 1902. However, in February 2020, the United States Department of Justice indicted four members of China's People's Liberation Army on nine charges related to the breach, which China has denied. In the fall of 1901, the company dispatched a salesman to the Northeast to drum up business in the home offices of the nation's largest insurance companies. Until his retirement in 1931, he successfully steered the company as general manager, president and chairman. 1898: Equifax's roots begin in this year as a Tennessee-based grocery story. The business soon became very successful. You shouldn't count on it", "If you made a claim for $125 from Equifax, you're not getting it after court awards nearly $80 million to attorneys", "Equifax acquires Ansonia expanding leadership in commercial credit data solutions", "WSJ News Exclusive | Equifax Sent Lenders Inaccurate Credit Scores on Millions of Consumers", "Equifax issued wrong credit scores for millions", "Equifax sued over erroneous credit scores sent for "millions" of Americans", "Equifax to acquire Brazilian credit bureau Boa Vista Servios for $596m", "Freezing Credit Will Now Be Free. [46] Moreover, the employee portal was reportedly not the same server targeted in the later breaches, which Motherboard speculates may suggest multiple breaches by more than one party may have occurred. [55] While these apps themselves were not reportedly connected to that breach, they had security flaws of their own, being vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks owing to some parts using HTTP instead of HTTPS. [46], "I didn't have to do anything fancy," the researcher told Motherboard, explaining that the site was vulnerable to a basic "forced browsing" bug. It has been recognized in the Top 100 list of the Worlds Most Innovative Companies by Forbes. Another concern was growing consumer dissatisfaction. The New Georgia Encyclopedia is supported by funding from A More Perfect Union, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Delayed Data. Equifax had quickly built up a significant presence in the emerging Brazilian market through a total investment of more than $350 million. [8] By 1920, the company had offices throughout the United States and Canada. Frazer Center is tucked away on 39 acres of old-growth forest in the heart of Atlanta. The settlement was for those who were affected by the data breach, and it cost Equifax over $700 million. Are you sure that you want to delete this photo? [citation needed] Equifax sells businesses credit reports, analytics, demographic data, and software. Reese, Krista. Equifax Courtesy of Equifax Beginnings In 1899 Cator and Guy Woolford, two brothers from Woolford, Maryland, began operations as the Retail Credit Company in Atlanta.

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