Experian Data Breach??

Don M.

Don M.

SF VIP
Location
central Missouri
Several months ago, the news was full of reports about a huge data breach at Experian, which could affect 10's of millions of people. Since then, I have not seen any reports about anyone being affected. I did get a couple of messages from them saying to do a "Dark Web" search on my accounts....which I did. Since then, I have had dozens of E-mails, wanting me to sign up for Extra protection...for a Fee, of course. Personally, I think the whole thing was just a hoax with the intention of signing up millions of people for "protection", with the primary goal of making Experian rich. Has anyone heard of any increase in Identity theft, etc., as a result of Experian?? I'm probably going to mark their e-mails as spam and send them to the unsubscribe bin....I get enough junk mail.
 

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Equifax was the latest to be hacked last year. Personally I think the big three credit agencies are guilty of identity theft of our personal data. Who gave them the right to gather our financial information in one place to make it easy pickings for hackers ??

I received a letter in the mail from the IRS warning that my SS number may have been falsely used for employment. Oh the joys of tens of millions of illegal aliens allowed to live here. The letter said my tax account was already flagged with an alert.

I investigated before I decided the letter was legit. All it advised me to do was to contact the three big credit reporting agencies to put an alert on my credit information.

I'm very careful with my SS number. So I assume I was a victim of last year's Equifax hack which stole half of the SS numbers on file.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...ae6f82-941a-11e7-b9bc-b2f7903bab0d_story.html

http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/09/pf/equifax-hack-senate-disclosure/index.html
 
Protecting your SS number is almost fruitless, think of the hundreds of places you've had to submit it over the years...and still probably do.

A credit fraud alert only lasts 90 days, most fraud occurs much later....these are professional thieves that know the ropes. Freeze your credit, it takes a little time but stops the most common credit fraud (applying for new credit in your name).
 

Well identity theft has steadily risen for over a decade anyway. Now that you mention it, I never heard much follow up about it either. Based upon the solicitations you received, you may be at least half right. Since so many other companies and agencies have experienced breaches, I don't doubt the breach took place...they just found a way to try and capitalize on it.
 
This is a real problem, even more so for expats living and working oversea's in some not so nice places.

We regularly have our credit cards compromised as we pay bills from Nigeria - it takes a lot of work for Ms. gamboolgal to monitor all the accounts and credit cards, especially when using internet services in the place(s) we live and work at. But that is the world we live nowadays.

We have frozen all of our credit information. But you still have to check account(s) activity very frequently.

We also have put additional security measures in place on all of our accounts - verbal passwords, challenge questions, changing of passwords regularly, and calling to talk with the account representatives.

We use all the software to try and prevent hacking - but not a lot of confidence in counter measures as everything is floating around in cyberspace.

We have not opted to use the smart phone text thing as we are living oversea's ..... so No Joy on cell phones.

We also have not used the Voice Recognition Security Measure yet - but are very interested in it. Does anyone on the forum have experience with using the Voice Recognition feature?
We would appreciate hearing of how it has worked from folks using it.

Thanks for any advice and help

gamboolman & gamboolgal...;)
 
What I don't understand is that Congress was all up in arms when it happened and then it just died. I froze my credit but am still afraid that I'll be looking behind my back the rest of my life because they were careless. And what about the two principals who gained a fortune when they sold their shares just before the breach was announced. NOTHING.
 
KingsX said:
.

Equifax was the latest to be hacked last year. Personally I think the big three credit agencies are guilty of identity theft of our personal data. Who gave them the right to gather our financial information in one place to make it easy pickings for hackers ??

I received a letter in the mail from the IRS warning that my SS number may have been falsely used for employment. Oh the joys of tens of millions of illegal aliens allowed to live here. The letter said my tax account was already flagged with an alert.
Click to expand...

What leads you to conclude that illegal aliens are in any way connected to a false use of your SS number?

In hopes of minimizing my exposure I carefully guard my personal information, check my account balances regularly, and froze my accounts with the three credit reporting agencies. I've heard that untangling identity theft is nothing short of a nightmare and hope that I never personally experience it.
 

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