A credit bureau does not get unlimited discretion to leave an identity theft account on your credit report just because it wants more convincing.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act has a specific identity theft blocking procedure. Generally, when the bureau receives the required proof of identity, identity theft report, identification of the fraudulent information, and your statement that the information does not relate to a transaction by you, the statute requires the bureau to block that information within four business days.
There are exceptions. A bureau may decline or rescind a block if it reasonably determines that the request was made in error, was based on a material misrepresentation, or that you actually obtained goods, services, or money from the transaction.
That word “reasonably” matters.
A denial letter can make it sound like somebody carefully examined your individual circumstances and reached one of those conclusions. But federal regulators have found credit reporting companies automatically denying identity theft blocks based on overbroad criteria instead of making the individualized determination the law requires.
That means a refusal to block the account should not automatically make you doubt what you know happened.
Sometimes something really was missing.
Sometimes the bureau may have a legitimate reason that needs to be understood.
And sometimes the process that produced the denial is the thing that needs to be examined.
For a deeper explanation of how these decisions can happen, see:
https://www.cardozalawcorp.com/blog/i-reported-identity-theft-do-they-think-i-m-lying-.cfm
