It could be useful to run a credit check on someone. IF someone is in crazy debt with 10 maxed out cards and has defaulted on every loan they ever got, do you want that person working for you?
Good news! There was an earlier, undisclosed (and supposedly unrelated) breach in March.
Gonna be really hard for those execs selling stock to claim they didn’t have knowledge of either breach and dodge insider trading.
Employers are required by law to get your written approval to do that. So if they ask, you tell them your credit is frozen to protect against identity theft but you’re happy to call whatever service they use and provide your PIN to permit it.
I had that happen too. I bailed after a few minutes and tried again. The trick is to use the automated service completely to get the freeze. If they say they’re switching to a person, just hang up (as weird as that sounds).
f we still had likes, I’d like this post to let you know that, you know, I getcha.
This. Looking up your credit without permission is illegal.
If that’s true, how is it that I get 10 credit card offers each month, and when I check my credit reports I see various queries from outfits like MBNA, Capital One, etc. ?
The preapproval stuff is a separate process. You can opt out of it with the agencies, iirc. Came across that when I was looking up how to freeze stuff.
Nick Sweeting, a software engineer, created an imitation of equifaxsecurity2017.com, Equifax’s page about the security breach. Several posts from the company’s Twitter account directed consumers to Sweeting’s version, securityequifax2017.com.
Their dumbassery escalates on a nigh-daily basis.
I finally managed to freeze my credit at all three agencies online. Equifax in particular took probably 80 tries spread out over a week.
I feel a bit better now.
Don’t forget Innovis too.
Never heard of Innovis before
I got my Innovis PIN in the mail today! Yay!
And here we go. Fraudulent charges overnight on a Visa I haven’t used in 3 months. They attempted to purchase gift cards from two different vendors.
New card on the way, but that’s not a good sign.
Of course the fun part of freezing your credit is I"m now waiting for Amazon to give me the next steps to get approval for an Amazon credit card so I can get my $70 gift card to purchase my computer parts (plus 5% cash back).
Not complaining, since having to do this song and dance is better than anyone being able to apply for a credit card in my name (and lol how easy it is to fill out the form online) but you know.
I’m not surprised, but damn…
The company was making good money compiling credit reports on Americans. But Wall Street wanted stronger growth.
The chief executive, Richard F. Smith, delivered, releasing dozens of new products each year and doubling revenue. The company built algorithms and started scrubbing social media to assess consumers. In a big data collection coup, Equifax persuaded more than 7,000 employers to hand over salary details for an income verification system that now encompasses nearly half of American workers.
As part of its pitch to clients, the company promised to safeguard information. It even sold products to help companies hit by cyberattacks protect their customers.
Nothing to do with this. Your credit card was stolen elsewhere-- probably multiple times, actually. Credit card companies are excellent at dealing with stolen cards; it shouldn’t be a major inconvenience for you.
Stolen identity, where they apply for new debt in your name, that they don’t handle well. That’s what freezing your credit is for.
I wasn’t sure if account numbers were part of what was stolen. My bank pinged me this morning via text on my mobile on the second charge and called me as soon as I responded to the text that I did not recognize the charge.
For what it’s worth, that’s the account that I billed Xbox live on. Let’s hope that isn’t related either.
Credit cards were not stolen from Equifax, but like I said, your credit card (and mine) were stolen many, many, many times. Have you ever bought anything at Home Depot or Chipotle? Banked at Chase? Stayed at a IHG, Hilton, or Starwood hotel? Hey, ever picked anything up at Target? All these places were hacked in the past couple of years, mostly through POS hacks that creditcard chips and tokenized payments like Apple/Android Pay are designed to fix.
Hundreds of millions of creditcards are on the open market. Everybody’s cards have been stolen multiple times. The only reason you, yes you reading this, I’m pointing at you, $namehere, haven’t seen fraudulent charges is that it’s a target-rich environment and you got lucky.
But again, if your credit card is used fraudulently it shouldn’t be a major inconvenience. Call them up and they will take care of it.