 TITLE: Can Businesses Run My Credit Without My Permission? CONTENT: What to Do if You Don't Recognize a Hard Inquiry\n------------------------------------------------\nYou might see soft inquiries when you check your own credit report, and won't necessarily recognize the names of the companies. Generally, that's not cause for concern. However, if you check your credit report and notice a hard inquiry (it may be in a different section of your report) from a company you don't recognize, that could be a problem.\nSometimes companies operate under several names, and it might be a legitimate hard inquiry from a recent credit application you submitted. Otherwise, the hard inquiry might be an indication that someone else tried to apply for credit using your information.\nWhen the latter is the case, you can submit a dispute to the credit bureau and ask it to remove the hard inquiry. You should also reach out to the company that pulled your credit and make sure an account wasn't opened without your permission. (Here are five steps you can take if an account was opened.)\nAlthough dealing with identity theft and fraud can be difficult, removing a hard inquiry that's the result of fraud can be a fairly straightforward process. But remember, you can't remove hard inquiries that come from your applications for credit—you have to wait until they fall off your credit report. END