Equifax breach advice sought

[KSRdallen]

Unbelievable! Nearly half of the nation is impacted. Besides credit protection, should one consider "freezing" their credit? Other advice?

[CitizenBBN]

Check here to see if you were probably or probably not impacted:

https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/potential-impact/

They need last name and last 6 of your social.


IMO with the future of technology it's not whether you get hacked this way, it's just how many times a year will it happen. I'm curious if Pedro or others have a favorite Lifelock type service, but I think having one or more is just a way of life now, like having locks on the doors of your house and car.

[KSRdallen]

Thanks, Chuck. I should have provided the link. I checked and am affected yesterday. My entire family is affected. I'm signed up for their protection and also have All Clear ID.

I'm not certain about "freezing" your credit, though. You have to call The agencies directly to do this if I understand right. Only you can "thaw" your credit temporarily by using a PIN so if you need an employer, loan agent etc to see you credit, they can and then you can re freeze.

[Catonahottinroof]

I wouldn't take the insurance or monitoring that Equifax is offering here. I am effected as well and my attorney has advised I could lose my right to legal action or remedy in this instance if I took their insurance.

[Darrell KSR]

Thanks, Chuck. I should have provided the link. I checked and am affected yesterday. My entire family is affected. I'm signed up for their protection and also have All Clear ID.

I'm not certain about "freezing" your credit, though. You have to call The agencies directly to do this if I understand right. Only you can "thaw" your credit temporarily by using a PIN so if you need an employer, loan agent etc to see you credit, they can and then you can re freeze.
Same here.

I don't anticipate any credit needs beyond my current so I am probably going to freeze my credit. Ridiculous to have to do this.

[KSRdallen]

Same here.

I don't anticipate any credit needs beyond my current so I am probably going to freeze my credit. Ridiculous to have to do this.

Yes, it is ridiculous. Equifax has a PR nightmare on their hands. As one of the three credit agencies, they have a higher level of responsibility and they failed miserably in this situation. Freezing seems to be the best idea at this time.

[MickintheHam]

Yes, it is ridiculous. Equifax has a PR nightmare on their hands. As one of the three credit agencies, they have a higher level of responsibility and they failed miserably in this situation. Freezing seems to be the best idea at this time.
Remember their customers are businesses who may not be affected as greatly as the consumers. The PR impact with their customers will,likely be less than it was for Target customers.

[MickintheHam]

Same here.

I don't anticipate any credit needs beyond my current so I am probably going to freeze my credit. Ridiculous to have to do this.
Do you know if you have to freeze credit at all three agencies? Can I recover fees by filing a claim with equifax? I hate to give them anymore information. They have too much already and what they have they screwed up.

[Darrell KSR]

Do you know if you have to freeze credit at all three agencies? Can I recover fees by filing a claim with equifax? I hate to give them anymore information. They have too much already and what they have they screwed up.
Mick, I will be checking into it as well tomorrow, but I think you will have to do it at all three. Unfortunately, the info the hackers now have (if they have it) includes vital information besides your social security number. Date of birth and driver's license number, I understand, is also in their hands, and that info can be used anywhere.

My tax return was extended (as usual) but I immediately e-filed Saturday morning to prevent a false refund claim from being made. Dumb stuff like that can happen.

By the way, I suspect you are right about the PR hit. It won't bother them as much as people think because their customers aren't us.

I would not at this time file a claim with Equifax to preserve possible rights to collect from them. Most class actions don't compensate the victims as much, but this could be an exception. It certainly ought to be one where you could recover your expenses for protecting yourself and damages. That's sorta premature for me, right now I don't trust Equifax, and I think immediate steps may need to be taken to protect ourselves from all kind of nightmares. It honestly sucks. I know you and I have young adult children who still need access to their credit (I may, just don't think so in the near future, but who knows) and for them, it could be a nightmare either way.

[KSRdallen]

In addition to Equifax, TransUnion and Experian, you should also considering freezing with Innovis. It's not as large a presence in the credit market, but you should still freeze it as well.

Here are the contact phone numbers for all four:

· Equifax: 1-800-685-1111
· Experian: 1‑888‑397‑3742
· TransUnion: 1-888-909-8872
· Innovis: 1-800-540-2505

If you want to do it online, there are links to all four in the article link below.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/8/16276194/credit-freeze-equifax-how-to-data-breach

[Darrell KSR]

Equifax should cut a deal with all credit reporters to provide free credit freeze options.

Equifax will charge me $10 (it varies by state). If that's similar to all, it will end up being $200 for 5 adults with 4 credit agencies.

[KSRdallen]

Equifax should cut a deal with all credit reporters to provide free credit freeze options.

Equifax will charge me $10 (it varies by state). If that's similar to all, it will end up being $200 for 5 adults with 4 credit agencies.

Innovis was free. Equifax was free for my youngest son for some reason and $10 each for the rest of us. I'll find out about TransUnion and Experian tomorrow.

[Darrell KSR]

* Equifax was free online for my wife and I.

* Experian was $10 each for my wife and I.

* Innovis was free online for my wife and I. Took a couple of attempts each time, and they have a weird thing where the Confirmation does not give any indication of who it is for (I am saving each as a PDF and printing them out in hard copy, nor do they give you a PIN online, but will mail you a letter. I am fine with that, but just be aware it may take days to get your PIN (I assume it will be in the letter).

* Transunion - has been a nightmare so far. Tried to sign up for some free Transunion service called TrueIdentity that claimed to do everything the freeze would do, only better, faster, and free. It screwed up with an error message, then wouldn't validate, etc. So then I went to go do the freeze, and it made me sign up for a new account to do it (not what any of the others required). Then it told me I already had an account, and my account has been temporarily suspended. So then I called the number, and I've been on hold for decades so far (I know it's a busy time, but they are the only ones I had any "real" problems with getting done.)

On my second call I got through after only about a 5-10 minute hold period. I reached someone where English was their second language, or at least, a different accent. She was very difficult to understand. She allowed me to place the freeze on my account and my wife's account, which I found odd, but with SS number, I guess almost anything is possible--hence one of the prime reasons for engaging this process. It cost $10 for each freeze.

Summary: $40 spent for the two of us, and still waiting on children to decide.

I have researched this as well as I can, and consulted with Samford University's Chief Information Security Officer, Technology Services. I was provided this article to read from Brian Krebs on Security, a renowned security professional and it was an easy-to-read article that described how to embrace the credit freeze (I admit, I didn't want to do it).

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace the Security Freeze (http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/06/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-embrace-the-security-freeze/)

I sent the information to my 3 adult children and told them it was their decision, what the consequences would be, how it might affect their obtaining of new credit (actually, the steps that may be needed), how it would affect possible tax fraud, etc. and recommended they do it. I also offered to do it for them if they wanted me to (and pay their fees). Hopefully they will, but they are grown people free to make their decisions.

On a related note--the IRS has frozen the ability to pull tax transcripts through tomorrow. I don't know if it is related or not, but one way that tax thieves work is to pull your last year's tax transcript, then file a fraudulent tax return refund claim. With this (coincidentally?) frozen with the IRS doing work, it is a great time to freeze your credit so they cannot obtain the information needed for the tax return transcripts.

[CitizenBBN]

I'll read that article, I need to look into this.

[KSRdallen]

* Equifax was free online for my wife and I.

* Experian was $10 each for my wife and I.

* Innovis was free online for my wife and I. Took a couple of attempts each time, and they have a weird thing where the Confirmation does not give any indication of who it is for (I am saving each as a PDF and printing them out in hard copy, nor do they give you a PIN online, but will mail you a letter. I am fine with that, but just be aware it may take days to get your PIN (I assume it will be in the letter).

* Transunion - has been a nightmare so far. Tried to sign up for some free Transunion service called TrueIdentity that claimed to do everything the freeze would do, only better, faster, and free. It screwed up with an error message, then wouldn't validate, etc. So then I went to go do the freeze, and it made me sign up for a new account to do it (not what any of the others required). Then it told me I already had an account, and my account has been temporarily suspended. So then I called the number, and I've been on hold for decades so far (I know it's a busy time, but they are the only ones I had any "real" problems with getting done.)

On my second call I got through after only about a 5-10 minute hold period. I reached someone where English was their second language, or at least, a different accent. She was very difficult to understand. She allowed me to place the freeze on my account and my wife's account, which I found odd, but with SS number, I guess almost anything is possible--hence one of the prime reasons for engaging this process. It cost $10 for each freeze.

Summary: $40 spent for the two of us, and still waiting on children to decide.

I have researched this as well as I can, and consulted with Samford University's Chief Information Security Officer, Technology Services. I was provided this article to read from Brian Krebs on Security, a renowned security professional and it was an easy-to-read article that described how to embrace the credit freeze (I admit, I didn't want to do it).

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace the Security Freeze (http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/06/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-embrace-the-security-freeze/)

I sent the information to my 3 adult children and told them it was their decision, what the consequences would be, how it might affect their obtaining of new credit (actually, the steps that may be needed), how it would affect possible tax fraud, etc. and recommended they do it. I also offered to do it for them if they wanted me to (and pay their fees). Hopefully they will, but they are grown people free to make their decisions.

On a related note--the IRS has frozen the ability to pull tax transcripts through tomorrow. I don't know if it is related or not, but one way that tax thieves work is to pull your last year's tax transcript, then file a fraudulent tax return refund claim. With this (coincidentally?) frozen with the IRS doing work, it is a great time to freeze your credit so they cannot obtain the information needed for the tax return transcripts.

Almost identical to my experiences. TransUnion was terrible. This is a pain, but I think worthwhile.

[KSRdallen]

Darrell, what about the reference in that article to ChexSystems (linked below)? What is it suggesting you do with them? That's not clear to me.

https://www.chexsystems.com

[Darrell KSR]

Freeze the ability to open a checking account. It's apparently what the banks use, so it should be effective. I will be doing that, too, I think. I'm trying to think that through to see the risk and downside.

[KSRdallen]

Freeze the ability to open a checking account. It's apparently what the banks use, so it should be effective. I will be doing that, too, I think. I'm trying to think that through to see the risk and downside.

OK. I see how to do that now. Please update here what you decide. Thanks.

[CitizenBBN]

So what's the downside? If you go to get a new card or loan you have to jump through a bunch of hoops? Anything else?

[MickintheHam]

Excuse my rant, but I have to take my time and money to go lookup people I have never done business with to tell them to cease and desist releasing information on me or granting credit in my name without my permission and without knowing for sure who they are doing business with?! The world has devolved from doing all your financial transactions with your local banker who knew who you were, your character and your ability to pay. It would appear to me it would decrease the credit bureaus' legal liability if they froze accounts automatically and then went about finding a better way to identify who they are doing business with. It's absurd they have not been a leader in account verification. At least my bank uses thumb identification and my broker uses voice recognition. Iris or facial recognition can't get here soon enough. I want to tell all of these institutions to ____ off!

[Darrell KSR]

So what's the downside? If you go to get a new card or loan you have to jump through a bunch of hoops? Anything else?

To freezing it? Not much. If you will need new credit/new job that does background checks with credit/etc., you can "thaw" the credit temporarily, perhaps even just for the one new creditor. It may have an "add on" effect of having to nickel and dime you with $5 to $10 fees each time, but cheaper than a credit monitoring service and more effective.

The checking account thing I have not had time to look into today. Had a funeral to attend this morning and just been running behind ever since.

[MickintheHam]

And of course this is the message I get.
System Currently Unavailable - Error 500


We're sorry. We cannot process your security freeze request online at this time. Please try back later.

To make a security freeze request with the other national consumer credit reporting agencies, please contact Experian and TransUnion:
Experian,P.O Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013 (888)379-3742
TransUnion,P.O Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834 (888)909-8872

[Darrell KSR]

And of course this is the message I get.
System Currently Unavailable - Error 500


We're sorry. We cannot process your security freeze request online at this time. Please try back later.

To make a security freeze request with the other national consumer credit reporting agencies, please contact Experian and TransUnion:
Experian,P.O Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013 (888)379-3742
TransUnion,P.O Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834 (888)909-8872

I haven't had time to look into this yet, but I think I am subscribed to some stupid TransUnion monitoring service now. I didn't give a credit card to THEM online, though, so I think it's just a trial period. Nonetheless, I want to discontinue it, and will later this week.

I share the frustration you posed in an earlier post.

[CitizenBBN]

To freezing it? Not much. If you will need new credit/new job that does background checks with credit/etc., you can "thaw" the credit temporarily, perhaps even just for the one new creditor. It may have an "add on" effect of having to nickel and dime you with $5 to $10 fees each time, but cheaper than a credit monitoring service and more effective.

The checking account thing I have not had time to look into today. Had a funeral to attend this morning and just been running behind ever since.

So it just freezes it for something like getting a new card? I haven't had a new card in years. Been replaced 2-3 times now due to fraud, but the same cards.

It makes sense you should have to approve any new credit activity anyway, just as a matter of course.

So Mick, I agree 100% with your rant. Some company I've never authorized is in effect putting the OK on creating of legal instruments in my name. That's not completely true, they are just assuring one of the parties that I"M an OK guy and the party doing the agreement is being defrauded b/c it's not me, but I totally agree with you in the big picture.

I think I'm going this, and getting monitoring, and then going off the grid and then living on spam and propane.

[MickintheHam]

So it just freezes it for something like getting a new card? I haven't had a new card in years. Been replaced 2-3 times now due to fraud, but the same cards.

It makes sense you should have to approve any new credit activity anyway, just as a matter of course.

So Mick, I agree 100% with your rant. Some company I've never authorized is in effect putting the OK on creating of legal instruments in my name. That's not completely true, they are just assuring one of the parties that I"M an OK guy and the party doing the agreement is being defrauded b/c it's not me, but I totally agree with you in the big picture.

I think I'm going this, and getting monitoring, and then going off the grid and then living on spam and propane.
Reminds me of my train ride from Grand Junction to Denver this summer seated next to a guy totally off the grid. No driver's license, no bank account and no credit cards. He had to ride the train because he had no identification. He may, in retrospect, be smarter than us all.

[MickintheHam]

I haven't had time to look into this yet, but I think I am subscribed to some stupid TransUnion monitoring service now. I didn't give a credit card to THEM online, though, so I think it's just a trial period. Nonetheless, I want to discontinue it, and will later this week.

I share the frustration you posed in an earlier post.

It is too easy to get that credit monitoring. It's a trick for sure. You have to get off that first page by clicking on a link at the very bottom to get credit freeze. It's not even labeled credit freeze. As info I paid no fee. Apparently it is being waived. Maybe these clowns are starting to understand their moral responsibility and legal liability. Maybe more of the latter than the former.

But thanks for the heads up Darrell I WOULD HAVE GOTTEN SOMETHING I didn't want.

[Darrell KSR]

Happy to have others benefit from my woes!

[MickintheHam]

I will have to say after dealing with these people, save Experion, the other two left me with the strong impression they are sleazeballs.

[MickintheHam]

Well, I called my Congressman's office. He has no position and no comment. Meanwhile 143 Million Americans must fend for themselves.

[Darrell KSR]

%@#$@$

I'm trying to cancel my TransUnion Credit Monitoring Membership, and it is a PAIN. Could not do it online. It said the easiest way was to call this number. So I call this number, and they say (automated prompts) to do it online, and they'll walk me through the process.

I go to the first page they indicate. No problem.
Then they claim there is language under "Support" that allows you to click a link to cancel. There is no such language, or link.
So I click the "talk to an account representative." And I am now on hold.

Piece of you-know-what.

[Darrell KSR]

Just FYI...I did a google search for how can i cancel my membership transunion credit monitoring.

I find a link. I click it.

There is a flash -- less than 1 second--where there is a clickable link to cancel your membership. I tried to click it, and it went away before I did. So I redid it from the google search page. This time, I knew where the link would be, or close...so I had the cursor ready, and my quick reactions clicked it before it disappeared.

https://membership.tui.transunion.com/tucm/cancelMembership.page?place_cta=support:contactus: onlineCancel

I go to a page that tells me all the things I will be giving up. There are "quick questions" to help them improve I try to answer. It won't let me answer. I click the arrow, nothing happens. I try to click in the blank and type in it, nothing happens. Oh well. I am concerned because that Google link is not necessarily tied to "my" account.

So I click the button at the bottom -- continue & Cancel.

I go to a page to log in. Type Username and password. Claims it is Incorrect. I try again, this time, it takes me to a pop-up window that says, "Retrieving Account, Click Continue to Enter Site." Gives me a warning that "Before you continue, don't miss this savings opportunity, available to you as a TransUnion Credit Monitoring Member.

I click the button that says "Continue."

It takes me a a Dashboard page where I can order the TransUnion Credit Monitoring subscription NOW for only $19.95/month!

The bold is their bold.

Has a big yellow "ORDER NOW!" button.

No indication I have canceled anything. Have I? I have no idea. I have not received an email. Have not received any indication that I have. Maybe I have.

I remain on hold, now for 30 minutes, while I have struggled through this. Thank goodness for speakerphones.

[Darrell KSR]

Apparently I am not the only one that struggles with this. Here's an article on the difficulty in canceling TransUnion.

https://blog.pennyapp.io/how-to-cancel-transunion-4500dfd4a230

[Darrell KSR]

6797

[Darrell KSR]

On hold now for 50 minutes....anybody want to make odds on what happens next?

I am assuming I will be disconnected when somebody picks up, or maybe before that happens.

[Darrell KSR]

After 66 minutes, I spoke to "Mary," and received her Employee I.D. number, who assured me that I am NOT signed up for the Credit Monitoring Service, and I will NOT be charged anything.

We'll see. I recorded that portion of the call, all of 2 minutes. Then I asked her to confirm that my account was frozen. She couldn't do that unless I had done it online. Since their online ability to do that was screwed up the other day, I had to do it via telephone call. So if you froze it via telephone call, you can only confirm it via online. How messed up is that?

And the website URL she gave me? It goes to this page.

6798

[MickintheHam]

Ha, ha, ha,

[KSRdallen]

It seems that Equifax didn't apply a security patch to their software (link below). The ineptness of this company continues to be more apparent.

jacksonclarion.ms.newsmemory.com/publink.php?shareid=1b7cc8c4a (http://jacksonclarion.ms.newsmemory.com/publink.php?shareid=1b7cc8c4a)

[Darrell KSR]

I probably will get this wrong, but I heard on the radio that they had a breach in Argentina, where their password was "admin."

[MickintheHam]

It seems that Equifax didn't apply a security patch to their software (link below). The ineptness of this company continues to be more apparent.

jacksonclarion.ms.newsmemory.com/publink.php?shareid=1b7cc8c4a (http://jacksonclarion.ms.newsmemory.com/publink.php?shareid=1b7cc8c4a)
Here's a part of the story I miissed. From today's WSJ:
Equifax said as part of the breach an*nounce*ment that credit-card num*bers for around 209
,000 U.S. con-sumers were stolen, too. Those cards likely be*long to peo*ple who pre*vi*ously bought credit-mon*i*tor*ing ser*vices from Equifax in hope of se*cur*ing an ad*di*tional layer of pro*tec*tion from fraud, ac*cord*ing to peo*ple fa*mil*iar with the mat*ter.

Meanwhile Congressman Gary Palmer has no reaction or comment!

[Darrell KSR]

WHOA--EQUIFAX knew of the major breach in its system FIVE MONTHS before they told anybody.

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2017-09-18/equifax-is-said-to-suffer-a-hack-earlier-than-the-date-disclosed

[CitizenBBN]

I can hear the worlds "class action" out there on the wind. Rightfully so btw.

[MickintheHam]

WHOA--EQUIFAX knew of the major breach in its system FIVE MONTHS before they told anybody.

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2017-09-18/equifax-is-said-to-suffer-a-hack-earlier-than-the-date-disclosed
Yes! Cisco notified users of the software in March of a problem. I believe Equifax noticed hacking as far back as May.

[MickintheHam]

I can hear the worlds "class action" out there on the wind. Rightfully so btw.

There were three suits filed in Alabama alone within the first week. I am contacting Morgan and Morgan, Morris Bart and Alexander Shunnarah to see who has the best deal. So far I have a pretty good deal from the Alabama Hammer!

[Darrell KSR]

Unfreaking believable. You can't make this up. For more than a week, Equifax directed all consumers to a Spoof site, rather than their own site.

I am unsure that I've ever heard of such ineptness.

http://www.businessinsider.com/report-equifax-directed-concerned-consumers-to-a-spoof-site-2017-9

[CitizenBBN]

Unfreaking believable. You can't make this up. For more than a week, Equifax directed all consumers to a Spoof site, rather than their own site.

I am unsure that I've ever heard of such ineptness.

http://www.businessinsider.com/report-equifax-directed-concerned-consumers-to-a-spoof-site-2017-9

Looks like the guy set it up to prove the completely, 100% obvious and true point that just setting up that site without it being equifax.com is a huge breach of security b/c it allows spoofers to come up with all kinds of variations and then people go to their sites.

It's an outrage they'd do it that way in and of itself, to then mess it up internally and actually prove the point by sending people to the spoof site is beyond imagination.

This is one of those things that you think can't get worse and then it gets worse.

[PedroDaGr8]

The new Equifax CEO announced that they will be rolling out a service that will allow you to lock and unlock your credit report for free for life. WHile I am waiting to see the fine print, honestly this should have been the defacto standard since the internet started. It would have solved a HUGE number of issues if ALL of the services offered this feature.



So here is our commitment: By Jan. 31, Equifax will offer a new service allowing all consumers the option of controlling access to their personal credit data. The service we are developing will let consumers easily lock and unlock access to their Equifax credit files. You will be able to do this at will. It will be reliable, safe and simple. Most significantly, the service will be offered free, for life.

[CitizenBBN]

Big step in the right direction. HOpefully gets the others to follow suit.

[MickintheHam]

Unfreaking believable. You can't make this up. For more than a week, Equifax directed all consumers to a Spoof site, rather than their own site.

I am unsure that I've ever heard of such ineptness.

http://www.businessinsider.com/report-equifax-directed-concerned-consumers-to-a-spoof-site-2017-9

Please don't forget that a while back Equifax signed a partnership deal with LifeLock. Fortunately life lock has taken the moral high ground in not using this as a Marketing opportunity.

[Doc]

Unless you are a child under the age of 16, odds are you are going to be on that list.

I'm not a lifelock fan. It was offered to us for free when the DOJ got hacked a few years back. Fortunately we have ID Shield so we declined. Lifelock monitors but does not do anything to return you to prehack status. It points you where to go but that's it. ID Shield takes you there and does it for you which is why we have it. I've been monitoring mine and nothing so far. I've been particularly nervous of late because I got turned over to collections by a card that changed to paperless but had the wrong e-mail address. When I didn't pay for 3 months they turned it over to a lawyer who called and demanded payment plus legal fees. I had no idea what they were talking about. A little work on my part figured it out...even though the credit card company was sending me "junk mail", (promotional stuff), to my house, the bills were going to an invalid e-mail. I got it resolved but was concerned about it showing up on my credit reports so I've been monitoring very closely. Then the equifax crap.... Anyway, I check at least weekly...nothing. And playing the numbers game, odds are it won't but if it does I'll deal with it.

[KSRdallen]

Another 2.5 million affected, now up to 145 million. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-02/urgent-equifax-2-5-million-more-americans-may-be-affected-by-hack