Their core business is very legit and needed. Banks and lenders need to have a central system to see who pays back loans and who doesn't, so Equifax etc play a

Their core business is very legit and needed. Banks and lenders need to have a central system to see who pays back loans and who doesn't, so Equifax etc play a vital role. If you ask for a loan or a credit card, it's perfectly legitimate to ask you that your info in recorded somewhere (or else no loan). The problem is that companies are as good as their last quarter, so over decades and tens of quarters they had to do a lot of shady stuff to increase their earnings.