How to Protect Against Identity Theft Following the Equifax Breach
By Timothy Tibbetts |
By now, hopefully, everyone has heard about the Equifax breach. It puts 143 million users at risk, and there's frankly no one hundred percent perfect way to be sure if all your personal and financial information is one of them. You can try and check at https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com but no one sure exactly when and if this works. Our attempts to use it returned nothing and even seemed fishy. It is the official website of Equifax to see if you're affected; it just sucks, like Equifax. After all the same company which allowed this breach created the so-called website. But, it's the first place to check. Maybe you'll get lucky.
Protect yourself
The best thing you can do right now is freezing your credit. Frankly, you might need to do this for a long time, and it isn't free. Equifax is offering it for free, but the other bureaus are not. Before you begin, you will either create or be given a pin, so be prepared to print it or write it down. Otherwise, you might not be able to lift the freeze. In some cases, you will also need your credit card handy.
Here are links to the websites to freeze your credit:
Equifax: (800) 685-1111 or https://www.freeze.equifax.com/
Experian: (888) 397-3742 or https://www.experian.com/ncaconline/freeze
TransUnion: (888) 909-8872 or https://freeze.transunion.com/
Innovis: (800) 540-2505 or https://www.innovis.com/securityFreeze
The Federal Trade Commission has a FAQ that should answer any other questions you have about freezing your credit.
More ways to protect yourself
Fun, right? Of course, some good old common sense applies from here, something we've preached since MajorGeeks was founded in 2001. Don't let your guard down. 143 million people have their information out there. It's a bad guy's wet dream. The information can and will be used in as many ways as possible from amateurs to professionals.
Because of this, you need to be more aware than ever before. We can expect the number of scams to rise. Phone calls, texts, social media, and emails are all ways people might try to phish your information and take advantage of you. Credit monitoring might be a good idea here. There's a lot of ways people can use your personal information out there; so many were just not going to try and discuss them all.
We've used Credit Karma with good luck for some time now. On a recent auto loan application, we were notified immediately after our credit was checked.
In closing
Because we can't resist, why are there so many credit reporting agencies? Your personal information, no, your entire financial life, is in the hands of four different companies that consider you a customer, even though you never did business with them. The Federal Government needs to step in and change this epic blunder that might have worked in the nineties but doesn't work in the digital age.
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Protect yourself
The best thing you can do right now is freezing your credit. Frankly, you might need to do this for a long time, and it isn't free. Equifax is offering it for free, but the other bureaus are not. Before you begin, you will either create or be given a pin, so be prepared to print it or write it down. Otherwise, you might not be able to lift the freeze. In some cases, you will also need your credit card handy.
Here are links to the websites to freeze your credit:
Equifax: (800) 685-1111 or https://www.freeze.equifax.com/
Experian: (888) 397-3742 or https://www.experian.com/ncaconline/freeze
TransUnion: (888) 909-8872 or https://freeze.transunion.com/
Innovis: (800) 540-2505 or https://www.innovis.com/securityFreeze
The Federal Trade Commission has a FAQ that should answer any other questions you have about freezing your credit.
More ways to protect yourself
Fun, right? Of course, some good old common sense applies from here, something we've preached since MajorGeeks was founded in 2001. Don't let your guard down. 143 million people have their information out there. It's a bad guy's wet dream. The information can and will be used in as many ways as possible from amateurs to professionals.
Because of this, you need to be more aware than ever before. We can expect the number of scams to rise. Phone calls, texts, social media, and emails are all ways people might try to phish your information and take advantage of you. Credit monitoring might be a good idea here. There's a lot of ways people can use your personal information out there; so many were just not going to try and discuss them all.
We've used Credit Karma with good luck for some time now. On a recent auto loan application, we were notified immediately after our credit was checked.
In closing
Because we can't resist, why are there so many credit reporting agencies? Your personal information, no, your entire financial life, is in the hands of four different companies that consider you a customer, even though you never did business with them. The Federal Government needs to step in and change this epic blunder that might have worked in the nineties but doesn't work in the digital age.
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