Social Security Hacked? Check your accounts

carouselsilver said:
I have received a warning for the umpteenth time already about someone hacking into something or other and obtaining my social security number. I have freezes with all three credit bureaus, as well. So last week, I got a letter from my credit union saying that someone hacked into those accounts. Brother! What next?
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With your credit frozen, the likelihood of it affecting you are very low to zero.
 
~Discover lets me know if my SS was used for any reason, even legitimate ones.
~In addition, one of the credit bureaus, I think it's Experian offers free scans to see if your information is on the dark web.
~My credit stays frozen at all three credit agencies, unless I want to apply for credit at which time I do a temporary unfreeze for a day.
~My passwords are intricate enough that they are deemed "Very strong" and each of my accounts has a different password.

~Also two factor identification is required to get into my accounts, usually via text messages, but one is by Symantec VIP, which I think is amazing. My VIP access seems less complicated than shown in this video. I registered my device with the financial institution I'm using it with by phone. Later when I changed devices, I was able to do it online.

All I have to do is open the app on my phone (I did not install it on my computer) and as shown on the left in the video, the access numbers change every 30 seconds, After logging in with my password, I have to enter the number shown on the screen before the 30 seconds is up (no problem, it usually only takes 5 seconds). If for some reason I miss the time, I just enter the next set of numbers. Hopefully these methods will keep me safe from ID thieves.

 
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carouselsilver said:
I was informed the credit bureau that my info is on the dark web. Meaning it is constantly being bought and sold by thieves.
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Oh boy! I sure hope this doesn't cause you any problems! If you haven't done so already, secure your accounts by any means necessary, like I've done with mine (as mentioned in reply #9). Hopefully you're comfortable with online financial access so you can monitor your accounts more closely than waiting for monthly statements to come in.

Usually the agency that's been hacked offers clients free ID theft monitoring (and possibly resolution). Did you get any such notices?
 
OneEyedDiva said:
Oh boy! I sure hope this doesn't cause you any problems! If you haven't done so already, secure your accounts by any means necessary, like I've done with mine (as mentioned in reply #9). Hopefully you're comfortable with online financial access so you can monitor your accounts more closely than waiting for monthly statements to come in.

Usually the agency that's been hacked offers clients free ID theft monitoring (and possibly resolution). Did you get any such notices?
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Yes, I did get a notice about that, but I am already covered through one of my credit card companies. They do a pretty good job of monitoring. However, I do want to check out that VIP thing you shared. My husband also received a letter from our bank and his info has been compromised as well. This might be worth investing in!
 
carouselsilver said:
I have received a warning for the umpteenth time already about someone hacking into something or other and obtaining my social security number. I have freezes with all three credit bureaus, as well. So last week, I got a letter from my credit union saying that someone hacked into those accounts. Brother! What next?
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They could use your personal information to open other financial accounts, credit cards etc and with your SSN they might succeed.
 
carouselsilver said:
Yes, I did get a notice about that, but I am already covered through one of my credit card companies. They do a pretty good job of monitoring. However, I do want to check out that VIP thing you shared. My husband also received a letter from our bank and his info has been compromised as well. This might be worth investing in!
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It's good that you are covered. Symantec VIP is something that was offered as a free security option by only one of the financial institutions I've dealt with and I had to register my device's ID # through them before using the system.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
It's good that you are covered. Symantec VIP is something that was offered as a free security option by only one of the financial institutions I've dealt with and I had to register my device's ID # through them before using the system.
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Some accounts they ask if you want to log in on the same device. In other words they use your device for official and probably unofficial verification.

With 300 million the hackers will have to narrow down what they are looking for which wouldn't be hard for them. But even worse is they can resell on the dark web.
 
WhatInThe said:
Some accounts they ask if you want to log in on the same device. In other words they use your device for official and probably unofficial verification.

With 300 million the hackers will have to narrow down what they are looking for which wouldn't be hard for them. But even worse is they can resell on the dark web.
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Even though I'll sometimes check "trust this device", I still have to use two factor identification because most of the time I'm using private browsers (either Chrome or Brave). The ability to recognize it as the same device doesn't seem to work with those. Plus sometimes my VPN is activated, so the IP addresses will not be the same.

@carouselsilver I can understand why you would still be worried. I wonder if hackers, especially the ones who are really good at it, have a way to bypass accounts with two factor identification or if those are too much trouble, so they just move on. :unsure: I'm hoping it's the latter.
 
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Another reason I have refused to do online banking. Also just have a single BofA credit card. As an older person from the era when SSN were openly used, expect my SSN has long been in some hacker's hands. But as a financial peon, and person with an A+multi-source public identity, I'd be one of the last person's they would bother with.
 
carouselsilver said:
With my credit freezes, the credit bureaus have to get my permission before anyone opens an account, even if they have my SSN. Still, this really worries me.
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I locked down my credit profiles with the 3 reporting companies, it's a pain to un-lock then re-lock, only did that once to buy my truck in 2019.

That's pretty much as good as it gets, for security. I get weekly sometimes daily text and emails from scammers and spoofers, I do double-check my accounts, but so far none has successfully accessed my accounts...<knocks of wood>.
 
About three years ago I found that someone had actually opened a bank account in my name. I successfully got it shut down, only to have to do it three more times. I contacted every agency that I could, reporting this. I worked hard to get my credit to nearly A-1, and I didn't do it so that bottom feeders could benefit. :mad:
 
Not sure this is related to this SS "hack", but last week, when I went to the store with my bank card, the atm thing said "incorrect PIN" ...six attempts in 2 trips to the same store.

I called the bank and set up an appointment to see a banker in-person to reset my PIN. The PIN didn't work on the bank's system, either, so the problem wasn't the store's atm. Plus, none of my money was stolen, so I'm pretty sure something happened within the bank's system. Maybe a hack, maybe a glitchy update, or maybe bc the banks switched to that new security system that the SSA switched to after the hack, or whatever that was.

So anyway, the card's reset (to the original PIN, actually) and all is well, but that was really strange.

Has this happen to any of you?
 
Our Centerlink ( aged pension ) would contact us ..and hasā€¦. advising us to ignore any texts or Emails ..Unless itā€™s through the Centerlink app on our phones ,if we get a message ..we get a email and thatā€™s easily checked if itā€™s from CL
because there will be a green dot on the app informing we have a message

Centerlink is also Medicare / Tax / child support / all rolled into one ā€¦it was previously called Social security before all being merged into one big central agency
 

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