We try to keep the topics fun and interesting around the old
Credit Union coffee shop.
Not this time.
The recent data breach at Equifax, one of the three major
credit bureaus (the other two are Experian and TransUnion) is a big deal that
could affect many of us. These three
credit reporting agencies are used extensively by financial institutions,
insurance companies, employers, heck, even your landlord.
A typical credit file contains much personal information
including names, former names, addresses, employer information, birth dates,
social security numbers, items of public record and, of course, credit payment
history. In other words, more than
enough information for a criminal to steal your identity.
I want to make sure everyone understands that this is a
completely different and more dangerous situation than when a retailer gets
hacked. A retailer usually only has
information about one of your credit cards.
Fraud on a credit card is a hassle, but you are protected by law so you
get your money back, you get a new card and life goes on.
If somebody steals your identity, they could obtain multiple
forms of credit in your name (stealing the proceeds) or even attempt to take
over investment accounts, etc. This
situation is a substantially bigger deal – more money is at stake and an even
bigger hassle.
This process of fraud usually takes time. The criminals that steal the information don’t
usually commit the actual fraud on accounts.
They sell this information to other criminals who are good at committing
this type of crime. This takes time and
the fraudsters are patient so you must be vigilant for years to come.
Now for the really bad news: there are approximately 200
million credit files in the United States.
143 million of them were compromised in the Equifax data breach.
What to do? You do
have options, which is the only little bit of good news in this blog post. There are credit monitoring services that
also have tools to prevent identity theft.
These are private, for profit companies so I won’t recommend any in
particular (Equifax offers this service which is a little ironic). Just google identity theft prevention and you
will have many choices.
The other option worth considering is contacting the three
credit bureaus and locking your credit file.
This means nobody can access your information without you first
unlocking the file via a PIN number that only you have. Doing this prevents any unauthorized credit
from being issued in your name. It’s a little
bit of a hassle in that you would need to “unlock” your file anytime you wanted
to borrow money, etc. but it may be worth it.
Contact the credit bureaus for this service.
Here is a link provided by Equifax regarding the data breach
and some free services they offering: www.equifaxsecurity2017.com. Be advised that there is a huge back log of
people trying to enroll in these services so there are lengthy delays in the
enrollment process. There is also some
excellent information at www.identitytheft.gov.
It’s easy to dismiss situations like this with the old “it
won’t happen to me”. Please don’t,
protect yourself.
Mark
