Boy, time flies when you’re protecting your identity. This article was originally written September, 2017. It was just a taste of things to come. In August, 2024 criminal hackers went bigger and literally hacked the Social Security Administration and got away with as much as all of our social security numbers, date of birth, address, and who knows what else. Even a baby identity thief could profit from this. The worry is that new state-sponsored criminal organizations are already working on profit and intelligence gathering.
If you are wondering whether to be worried about the Equifax hack from 2017, the answer is yes. You should be worried. However, you do not need to panic. How ever bad the Equifax hack of 2017 was, there were plenty of doozeys on its heels. So many, in fact, that any one of them likely caused more damage. Still, those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it.
Get Some Credit Monitoring
By now, you should probably have some rudimentary credit monitoring whether it comes through a free credit score service like Credit Karma, or from your bank, or one of your credit cards. You’ll want to read all of those emails more closely from now on. It you see something that isn’t right, contact the credit issuer right away to let them know about fraud, as well as call the credit bureaus.
You can go check if your information was some of the affected, however, even if you check now, check again in a few weeks. The ALWAYS find more accounts were affected than they originally thought after they bring in experts and begin devoting resources to investigating what happened.
What Should I Do About the Equifax Hack?
You should probably write a letter to your Congressman and Senators demanding they do something. It’s time to come up with a new way to uniquely identify citizens for credit purposes. You should also be able to freeze and unfreeze access to your credit report for free. – Hey good news, past article, you can now freeze and unfreeze your credit report at all three credit bureaus. And you don’t even have to jump through hoops like sending a snail mail letter asking to freeze your credit. You will want to watch out for “free” trials that end up hooking you to pay for stuff you may not want or need.
Next, if you don’t do it already, you should get your free annual credit reports on a spread out, rotating basis so you can compare what is on it now, with whatever might get put on it in the future. Even though there are a lot of ways to get a look at your credit report for free, your free annual credit report is still the best way to ensure you are getting all of the data, straight from the horses mouth.
- Try ordering one in May, one in October, and one in February where you want to be sure there are no surprise shopping accounts or trade lines opened in your name over the holidays.
Equifax is offering free credit monitoring but that isn’t as big of deal as you might think. The reality is that they will just send you a notice that something change on your credit report. It is still on you to do something with that information.
Should I Freeze My Credit?
Maybe. Yup. Times have changed. Identity thieves aren’t just a group of crooks working together out of a house. Organized crime has moved in, and even North Korea engages in identity theft to generate dollar based income and move it out of the country. Credit Bureaus no longer charge you to freeze your own credit report (isn’t that big hearted of them?), so the only thing you lose is time, and add a bit of hassle, but it is way better than the alternative.
The credit bureaus used to make it difficult to freeze and unfreeze but now you can do it online. You’ll need to create a free account and then navigate around non-free offerings, but otherwise freezing your credit is pretty simple.
Should I File a Fraud Report?
This can be like a credit report freeze-lite. You contact one credit reporting company and tell them to put a fraud alert on your report. By law, they are required to notify the other two credit bureaus, but you may as well notify all three of them.
A fraud alert is a huge red flag and reputable lenders will not extend you (or hackers) any credit while there is a fraud report on your credit. The downside is that if you legitimately need someone to access your credit report, you’ll have to get the fraud report taken off first.
Fraud reports last 90 day unlike a credit freeze that can be thawed instantly and even temporarily before automatically refreezing. A credit freeze is preventative. A credit fraud report is when you’ve already been hi.
What If My Credit Card Number Was Exposed?
If your actual credit card number was exposed, Equifax will notify you by mail. They may also notify the credit card company. Either way, if you learn your number was exposed, call your credit card company right away and ask for a new card with a new number. Tell them why. They’d rather not be liable for any fraudulent charges on your credit card either.
Sources:
As always the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a great resource for information about banking, lending, and credit reports and credit scores.