Question about "public records" (Austin, Onion Creek: credit report, houses, live)

[DashRiprock]

Kind of a long story so bear with me.

I was taking an on-line defensive driving class and as part of the verification process, they periodically ask you questions about yourself that only you should know. The first two questions gave me a list of former addresses and former zip codes I'd supposedly been associated with, along with maybe 9 or 10 options, and a "none of the above". I looked down each list of locations/zip codes and none were familiar, so I clicked "none of the above".

The system told me I missed both questions and gave me a warning that I can only miss one more before being denied the opportunity to take the class on-line. So I contacted the course directly to see if maybe they had my info wrong.

The lady told me that the information was taken from "public records". She then e-mailed me a list of answers that the system was looking for. There were 15 questions and all were legitimately connected to me except that one address and its corresponding zip code.

I was curious so I googled it and it's a vacant lot in SE Austin near Onion Creek, currently owned by the city of Austin. I think it was one of the houses that flooded some time back and the city basically bought out everybody in the area and condemned it as a flood plain. I don't know whether that matters, but it was interesting.

Anyway, does anybody know how this could have gotten into my "public record"? What exactly is the "public record" that they pull from - DPS? Credit reports? Should I be concerned about identity theft? What should I do?


tl/dr: I recently found out that my public record contains an address that I've never had any connection to. What's going on?

[Kthnry]

Did you look up the ownership history of the property? Do you have an ex who might be associated with the property? My ex-husband's house keeps showing up on my list of possible addresses. We've been divorced over 20 years and I've never set foot in that house.

[atxcio]

Check your credit reports to be safe.

It could be a mistake, but addresses that are not yours can show up in public records when someone else uses your identity.

[DashRiprock]

Yes, I looked it up on the TCAD site. That's how I knew it was owned by the city. They acquired it from someone in 2008 who was the original owner (bought directly from builder in 1981). I did not recognize the name and have no association with that person whatsoever that I am aware of.

I've never been divorced and have no idea how my name came to be associated with this property. I've lived here nearly 40 years and don't think I've ever even been through that part of the city.

edit: further googling found that this lot was indeed part of a flood buyout along Onion Creek. It looks like the Corps of Engineers is in the process of doing some kind of flood mitigation project there.

[DashRiprock]

Originally Posted by atxcio

Check your credit reports to be safe.

It could be a mistake, but addresses that are not yours can show up in public records when someone else uses your identity.

I did run a credit report and nothing showed up so I assume this came through the DPS site. What other sources of "public records" are there?

I did some more googling with "my name" + "that address" and it's turning up in some of the people search type sites. I saw that a lot of extremely distant in-law "relatives" are being associated with me, many(most) of whom I've never met. But I don't think that property's prior owner could be one of them.

[Mimmyu]

Be sure to run all three credit reports

[CptnRn]

I once found that there were 12 other property owners in Travis County that had names similar or identical to mine. We also found a lady who was writing bad checks with the same name as my wife. Its not too hard to see how those names could get confused in the public record.

[eqshadimar]

I had trouble getting this house in Austin because someone with my same name and who lived about 1/2 mile from me (in my old town) was wanted for back child support. It was not a big deal to clear up but still it is amazing how little it takes for someone in some government office to not check something closely and bamm your life is screwed for a bit.

[RoamingTX]

Originally Posted by DashRiprock

I did run a credit report and nothing showed up so I assume this came through the DPS site. What other sources of "public records" are there?

I did some more googling with "my name" + "that address" and it's turning up in some of the people search type sites. I saw that a lot of extremely distant in-law "relatives" are being associated with me, many(most) of whom I've never met. But I don't think that property's prior owner could be one of them.

Typos and transcription. How common is your name and/or misspellings? Source it out and contact the associated platform.

Start with searching your name at www.publicdata.com

[escanlan]

Originally Posted by DashRiprock

Kind of a long story so bear with me.

I was taking an on-line defensive driving class and as part of the verification process, they periodically ask you questions about yourself that only you should know. The first two questions gave me a list of former addresses and former zip codes I'd supposedly been associated with, along with maybe 9 or 10 options, and a "none of the above". I looked down each list of locations/zip codes and none were familiar, so I clicked "none of the above".

The system told me I missed both questions and gave me a warning that I can only miss one more before being denied the opportunity to take the class on-line. So I contacted the course directly to see if maybe they had my info wrong.

The lady told me that the information was taken from "public records". She then e-mailed me a list of answers that the system was looking for. There were 15 questions and all were legitimately connected to me except that one address and its corresponding zip code.

I was curious so I googled it and it's a vacant lot in SE Austin near Onion Creek, currently owned by the city of Austin. I think it was one of the houses that flooded some time back and the city basically bought out everybody in the area and condemned it as a flood plain. I don't know whether that matters, but it was interesting.

Anyway, does anybody know how this could have gotten into my "public record"? What exactly is the "public record" that they pull from - DPS? Credit reports? Should I be concerned about identity theft? What should I do?


tl/dr: I recently found out that my public record contains an address that I've never had any connection to. What's going on?

Your "Credit Report" is only one piece of information maintained on your history. You should also obtain your free copies of the full range of reports typically maintained on you. LexisNexis is one of the, if not the, largest collector and provider of this information. You can order these for free here https://personalreports.lexisnexis.com/ .



You will be surprised just what "Public Information" is being kept on you and it may display attempts at identity fraud.