May 3, 2021

Vivint Smart Home Inc., which sells “smart” home security and monitoring systems through a door-to-door sales force, has agreed to settle for $20 million in the largest civil penalty ever paid to resolve violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).  According to the DOJ, Vivint’s lack of an Identity Theft Prevention Program allowed its sales force to fraudulently obtain credit reports of unsuspecting consumers in order to complete sales to potential Vivint customers who failed required credit checks.  Vivint then allegedly sold debt from Vivint customers who defaulted to debt collectors who attempted to collect from the unsuspecting victims.  Vivint recently paid $3.2 million to settle charges involving a different scheme.  DOJ; FTC

Tagged in: Financial and Investment Fraud,