Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #25 – September 14, 2017, 01:27:21 pm "As I mentioned, I put in both a fraud alert and a credit freeze for myself and my husband with all four credit reporting agencies. It was done online without a problem."Huh, wish I could be so lucky! Since placing a free 90 day fraud alert with any of them requires they share with the others, that's easiest if I can get it done. They don't share the credit freeze, so that requires paying two of the three to do it. It's a PITA, including being out of pocket. I have IDProtect through my bank, which is free. They provide a free credit report every 90 days, daily monitoring of my CC activity, and send me a monthly report of any activity (none over the years). But, they don't seem to provide a way to place a fraud alert. ;-( If LifeLock does, that's a bonus.
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #26 – September 14, 2017, 02:02:06 pm I've always been a little leery of Life Lock due to their past controversies. Then again, who CAN you trust nowadays?LifeLock - Wikipedia 2 Likes
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #27 – September 14, 2017, 02:51:07 pm "How do you like that?" (Life Lock)LindaI've been with Life Lock for three years (Premium (?)) and have had no complaints. They will notify you either by e-mail, telephone, or text (or all three if you choose). I may just be lucky but so far I've not had any alarms concerning my credit cards or bank accounts. One of my credit cards was compromised recently but the CC Company jumped on it the very next day and it was resolved quickly. In that case I did not get an alert from Life Lock but there may have been a reason of which I'm unaware!
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #28 – September 14, 2017, 03:52:22 pm A link for information on credit freeze and thaw for three of the players.....Credit Freeze Guide: The best way to protect yourself against identity theft... 2 Likes
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #29 – September 14, 2017, 07:12:53 pm Quote from: colddog - September 14, 2017, 03:52:22 pmA link for information on credit freeze and thaw for three of the players.....Credit Freeze Guide: The best way to protect yourself against identity theft...After watching the Clark Howard video, I am convinced that I will be placing a credit freeze with the big three agencies. I tried just now without any success due to "high traffic" I assume. Anyone had any recent luck?
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #30 – September 14, 2017, 07:16:27 pm I was just successful with Transunion, but I did a " credit lock" instead of a freeze ; seems to have the same effect. Was unsuccessful with Experian "due to high volume," and the same with Equifax. -- Jon
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #31 – September 14, 2017, 08:02:48 pm We froze our credit reporting accounts more than 10 years ago. One of the nice benefits besides the obvious was a drastic reduction in junk mail based on our credit scores. As far as we're concerned, there isn't a downside to this practice. 2 Likes
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #32 – September 14, 2017, 09:33:22 pm Okay, we too froze our credit 10 years ago or so. HOWEVER, in reading all these stories I have now been made aware there is a FOURTH group out there. How do these people get to do this stuff?!?!?!😡Innovis is the group. I am pi**ed off!!! Who allows these groups to exist?!?!Security Freeze
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #33 – September 15, 2017, 09:04:14 am Good news! Was finally able to get into the big three agencies (online) and freeze our credit. No damage noticed to date. Like some of you (smarter than the rest of us) others that have had your credit frozen for years, we see no reason to unfreeze it in the future.Also did Innovis which I previously was not aware of. Here is their security freeze site:Security FreezeThanks for all the input by our wonderful LDO Forum members!
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #34 – September 15, 2017, 01:32:53 pm I suspect that many here have heard or read horror stories regarding the results of identity theft. Here is a short one in case you haven't.My Three Years in Identity Theft Hell - BloombergAlso, learned that credit freezes are free if you are a Florida resident age 65 or older.https://consumersunion.org/pdf/security/securityFL.pdfJim
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #35 – September 17, 2017, 12:54:00 pm Take a look at this page from the FTC on the steps to take if you are a victim of ID theft. When you stop and think about it, it could be a very unpleasant way to spend your time.Identity Theft Recovery Steps | IdentityTheft.govJim
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #36 – September 17, 2017, 03:03:48 pm Pulled up my credit history 22 years ago and found dozens and dozens of bad items from places in Mississippi. Never been to Mississippi. Turns out the credit agencies mixed up the history of a fellow with my exact name and a birth date exactly one year earlier from Mississippi with my history. It took me six months to clean up with dire threats made to all. I continued to get nasty calls for years after that from creditors trying to get their money. My understanding is if this happens to you today that you will never get it right. When I went to buy my first house it got held up for a number of days until I could prove that the fellow from Lawrence Kansas with my exact name with a judgement against him in the local district court was not me.I had a friend who got a new credit card recently and it had three or four fraudulent charges on it before he received it in the mail.I know two people who had someone file for a tax refund under their SSN before they filed their return. With IRS you are guilty until proved innocent. They did eventually get things squared away.If it were possible to do so I would set things up with IRS that they were not allowed to deal with me except in person and I would hand deliver a paper copy of my taxes to them. Same with the state taxing authorities. I would like to also place a permanent freeze on my SSN for dealings with anyone with whom I have not already established a business relationship. I hope this gets allowed some day. I would love to be able to start over with a brand new SSN now and permanently retire my present number. Perhaps we can get to a point of required retinal or face recognition requirements in the not too distant future.Identity theft is in its infancy stages. I expect that these breaches will become more and more the norm and no one will be safe. I hate to be an alarmist but dang, there just isn't much you can do about it at this point and it makes you feel rather helpless. 2 Likes
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #37 – September 17, 2017, 03:11:00 pm A bar code tattooed onto your forehead at birth might be the answer.😳To confirm someones identity you just scan them like a can of soup.👍🏼 2 Likes
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #38 – September 18, 2017, 03:52:51 am I have a page on my website that deals with ID theft and may be helpful to those who wish to be proactive with regard to this issue.... you'll see the link on my homepage,Todd's Tax Service LLC - Tax Preparation, Income Tax, E Filing
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #39 – September 18, 2017, 10:53:43 am Quote from: huskerblue - September 17, 2017, 03:03:48 pmI would love to be able to start over with a brand new SSN now and permanently retire my present number. There was a news piece about this very subject recently. The guy said you *can* get a new SSN (although it's not an easy thing to do); however, it's *still* associated with the old number. Seems like requesting a new SSN doesn't really gain you anything.
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #40 – September 18, 2017, 11:41:50 am Quote from: Linda Hylton - September 18, 2017, 10:53:43 amThere was a news piece about this very subject recently. The guy said you *can* get a new SSN (although it's not an easy thing to do); however, it's *still* associated with the old number. Seems like requesting a new SSN doesn't really gain you anything.Here is a link to the SSA site regarding getting a new number. You can also get a new DL number if your's has been compromised.Can I change my Social Security number?Jim
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #41 – September 20, 2017, 07:22:16 pm New headline in the local paper --- 1.7 million Oregonians have been hacked. So I did a bit of math 'casue I got no social life. If 1.7 million Oregonians called Equifax for a security hold at 60 seconds a call that would consume 28,000 hours of Equifax time on the phone. There 8,760 hours in a year so we are taking about 3.2 years of so of time. Assuming you'll have to call all three credit bureaus we then come to about 9 years of talk time. Of course we are assuming everything runs smoothly. I'm liking more and more the pain we 'products' are/can inflect on those guys. BTW I did a security hold on all three. I'll spare you the 'anger' I felt that I had to spent $40 to 'ask' as a 'product' to keep me safe. IMHO if any company isn't taking care of its products it creates then it shouldn't be in business. 3 Likes
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #42 – September 20, 2017, 09:08:23 pm If you do business with USAA, and I know a lot of you do, they offer free Credit Score Monitoring through Experian. The ‘free’ service is pretty basic but the price is right. They offer ‘premium’ services as well. I went with the free option. Your choice.Here is what you get for Free.“Although you are not yet fully enrolled, you have access to your online account and will shortly be able to enjoy all of the following benefits: Enjoy daily Experian Credit Report monitoring and notifications when key changes are detected Receive monthly VantageScore updates and alerts that notify you of changes in Score Rank, along with score increases and decreases View your monthly Credit Summary with Credit Usage, Payment History, Credit Depth and Recent Credit Use the Score Tracker to see how your Experian VantageScore tracks over time Access Credit Resources and Online Education for newsletters, articles and financial calculators Utilize our Call Center for assistance with product support and questions”
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #43 – September 21, 2017, 08:50:31 am Thanks, Ed! I did not USAA offered that. Now that I'm a member I'll check it out.You can also get free monitoring from Credit Karma:How it Works | Credit Karma
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #44 – September 21, 2017, 04:03:45 pm After you have been compromised by Equifax this is a sure fire way out. 3 Likes
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #45 – September 21, 2017, 06:58:19 pm Quote from: Lazy Bones - September 14, 2017, 12:03:26 pm"...you are entitled to a free credit report each time you set up a fraud alert..."I'm with Life Lock and I get my credit report from them each time I log on to their site, as well as the reports of the other major agencies. Anything spoken of in this thread can be performed with Life Lock, plus a lot more (including sexual predator reports for my specific neighborhood.) . I hate to bring bad tidings, but yesterday's LA Times had a column that disclosed that all Lifelock is doing is selling you credit reporting and monitoring services provided by . . . Equifax! Lifelock gleefully reports how much it's business has jumped since the disclosure of the breach. So, it's exploiting and profiting from Equifax's data breach while relying on Equifax to provide Lifelock's product. I don't know how much you're paying in monthly fees for Lifelock, but because of the breach you can now get the same service for free right from the source. If you trust them, of course. [LAT 9-20-17 p. C-1 Hiltzik's column]. -- Jon 2 Likes
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #46 – September 21, 2017, 07:38:29 pm I don't know about everyone else but bits and pieces of our information have been hacked from various sources over the years. It has happened so often that we have had free monitoring courtesy of one company or another continuously for years.The problem is that monitoring is an after the fact solution. Just consider what is involved in shutting down one account opened fraudulently in your name. It's better than nothing but it doesn't beat a credit freeze and even that won't protect you from every possible form of ID theft. In the case of the Equifax hack, they got everything they need to assume your ID.Having said that I still haven't placed a freeze on my credit even though it would cost me nothing to freeze or thaw. I guess I'm lazy.Jim 1 Likes
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #47 – September 21, 2017, 09:33:23 pm If I had to choose a pay -for service, I would go with Zander Insurance. Those that listen to Dave Ramsey will be familiar with this company. Not only do they monitor your credit, they also help you repair it!Identity Theft Protection | Zander Insurance Group 1 Likes
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #48 – September 21, 2017, 11:13:29 pm The credit freeze seems to me to be a fairly good 'partial' solution given the current situation. I mistakenly thought that a fraud alert would compel the Credit Reporting Bureau's to require that any entity doing a credit check would have to contact the account 'owner' to verify that they had indeed initiated a request for credit. This is not the case. If I understand correctly, there is nothing that forces the CRB's to confirm an inquiry has been made by a potential creditor prior to releasing any individuals credit report. So, a fraud alert on one's accounts does not seem to provide adequate protection. The credit freeze on the other hand locks down your credit information, which is much better, at least for credit. There are two problems with this though. First, at the moment, to get a credit freeze, one must contact and pay each of the CRB's to freeze your credit. Given what's recently happened, in my opinion this is paying protection money to the culprits...that's hard to swallow. Second, what I haven't seen much discussion of is that with the information that is now "out there forever", how does anyone who's information has been compromised protect against a criminal accessing and diverting social security checks, or filing a tax return with the IRS on January 2nd in one's name, collecting a return, and then leaving the victim to try and prove they are just that. For social security, if anyone doesn't already have an account with the SSA, they should establish one as soon as possible at https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/. This will prevent anyone else from establishing an account using your credentials. As for the IRS and fraudulent tax returns, this sort of scam has been going on for several years as many must know. All I can think of at the moment is to 'be there first', which means being ready to file one's tax return at the turn of the new year. Not easy to do for working folks! I'd be interested to hear from others that may have read about this possibility, what they've learned, and any ideas about avoiding this. So far, most of what I've read regarding the Equifax hack has been related to protecting credit, but not much about these other concerns. 1 Likes
Re: Equifax Data Breach 2017 Reply #49 – September 21, 2017, 11:56:52 pm Quote from: krmugn - September 21, 2017, 11:13:29 pmThe credit freeze on the other hand locks down your credit information, which is much better, at least for credit. There are two problems with this though. First, at the moment, to get a credit freeze, one must contact and pay each of the CRB's to freeze your credit. Given what's recently happened, in my opinion this is paying protection money to the culprits...that's hard to swallow. Second, what I haven't seen much discussion of is that with the information that is now "out there forever", how does anyone who's information has been compromised protect against a criminal accessing and diverting social security checks, or filing a tax return with the IRS on January 2nd in one's name, collecting a return, and then leaving the victim to try and prove they are just that. For social security, if anyone doesn't already have an account with the SSA, they should establish one as soon as possible at my Social Security. This will prevent anyone else from establishing an account using your credentials. As for the IRS and fraudulent tax returns, this sort of scam has been going on for several years as many must know. All I can think of at the moment is to 'be there first', which means being ready to file one's tax return at the turn of the new year. Not easy to do for working folks! I'd be interested to hear from others that may have read about this possibility, what they've learned, and any ideas about avoiding this. So far, most of what I've read regarding the Equifax hack has been related to protecting credit, but not much about these other concerns. Regarding paying for freezes cost depends on your state. In Florida it's free if you are 65 or older.In regards to the IRS I believe Todd's website mentions an IRS Pin. It's not clear to me that you can get one in this circumstance but if not it is certainly something that people could bring to their congresscritters attention. It would seem to me that this would warrant that option. Here is a link to info on that from the IRS.The Identity Protection PIN IP PIN | Internal Revenue ServiceJim
Topic: Equifax Data Breach 2017 (Read 1669 times)
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