Today I’d like to explain what an OFAC message or an OFAC alert is.
It’s usually found on the back of your credit report and it says that your name is a match or potential match to the OFAC list.
That’s the Office of Foreign Assets Control lists that’s maintained by the US Department of the Treasury and you don’t want your name associated with this list in any way whatsoever.
It’s a list of terrorists, money launderers, drug traffickers, and others considered enemies of the United States. It’s included Osama bin Laden and El Chapo.
Now you might be thinking to yourself there’s no chance that my name is going to be associated with this list. But what you might not know is that the list has some very common names on it. Names like Carl Lee and Maria Fernandez, names like Mark Taylor and Luis Lopez, and other common names.
You might also not know that the companies that associate ordinary American consumers to the criminals actually on the list don’t always take great care in distinguishing between the two.
So we’ve seen situations involving a nice grandmother from Colorado being told at a car dealership that the FBI would need to be called on her because of an OFAC alert on her on her credit report.
And we’ve had clients from coast-to-coast denied loans because banks don’t want to do business with consumers that have OFAC alerts on their credit reports.
If you’re looking at one of these false OFAC alerts, it’s something that you need to take very seriously.
I urge you to learn more about your rights and you can begin by checking out the OFAC page on the website below.
Thank you and take care.
