Equifax Hacked - 143M US Consumers could be affected

[holden j caufield]

Heh - how does that work anyways? First lawyer to file it gets the case? If so that's pretty fucked up - what if it's a shit ass lawyer that can't get us any decent sum of money payout?

Sht lawyer or the Lebron James of lawyers. We still get the same $1.75 check that's not worth cashing.

 

[clamum]

If they were tracking your data, you are affected. I would imagine almost everyone with a credit history is impacted. Will everyone's get abused...most likely not, but everyone should watch their account activities, and credit ratings for potential problems in the next 5 years.

Yeah I definitely have a credit history. I think I'll just keep an eye on it rather than sign up for their credit monitoring thing. Call me crazy but I don't trust that too much; I mean the company that offers credit monitoring got hacked? Sorry if I'm a little skeptical. Plus at least a couple of my credit cards have a credit score on them that I see monthly, that's one way to keep an eye on it I'd think.

 

[esquared]

Woot!

Thank You
Based on the information provided, we believe that your personal information was not impacted by this incident.

Click the button below to continue your enrollment in TrustedID Premier.

But my stuff is probably out there from the multiple breaches from other companies.

 

[Malogeek]

Apparently I was affected but my wife wasn't. Frozenated!

 

[holden j caufield]

So I get free credit score on my credit cards. Basically every month I've been 800+ for the last year, July 2016 - 2017 I'm ~830. Then Aug 2017 I'm ~790. That's 40 point drop doesn't sit right with me.

 

[esquared]

So I get free credit score on my credit cards. Basically every month I've been 800+ for the last year, July 2016 - 2017 I'm ~830. Then Aug 2017 I'm ~790. That's 40 point drop doesn't sit right with me.

Better use that free copy you're entitled to to check.

From 830 to 790 is a pretty big monthly drop, if you didn't apply for anything in that time.
It could be attributed to a few credit card inquiries.

 

[MtnMan]

Don't sign up for their "free" credit monitoring, remember nothing is free

A massive data breach at Equifax compromised sensitive data for nearly half of all U.S. consumers — including names, social security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and the numbers of some driver's licenses. Hundreds of thousands of credit card numbers were also compromised. Now millions of Americans could be at risk for identity theft.

To make matters worse, Equifax responded by sending consumers to a website where, by signing up for credit monitoring services, they could waive their legal rights to ever take Equifax to court, for any problem.

 

[Svnla]

So I get free credit score on my credit cards. Basically every month I've been 800+ for the last year, July 2016 - 2017 I'm ~830. Then Aug 2017 I'm ~790. That's 40 point drop doesn't sit right with me.

First of all, are those scores FICO and max range of 850 and not proprietary credit scores?

Secondly, if those were FICO and max out at 850, then you have a problem because when you open a new credit card (hard inquiry), your FICO should drop about 10 points right away and then slowly go back up in a few months. A drop of 40 points FICO is a concern for sure (as long as you did not do anything bad such as forget to pay a credit card bill or pay late/etc.).

I would go to www.annualcreditreport.com and get your free credit reports from all of the big 3 credit bureaus.

 

[snoopy7548]

First of all, are those scores FICO and max range of 850 and not proprietary credit scores?

Secondly, if those were FICO and max out at 850, then you have a problem because when you open a new credit card (hard inquiry), your FICO should drop about 10 points right away and then slowly go back up in a few months. A drop of 40 points FICO is a concern for sure (as long as you did not do anything bad such as forget to pay a credit card bill or pay late/etc.).

I would go to www.annualcreditreport.com and get your free credit reports from all of the big 3 credit bureaus.

FWIW, I just went to that site a few minutes ago and requested my reports from all three bureaus, and all three were not available for viewing online. I had to mail in a request to see them (while including my SSN and other information), so I said fuck it and gave up. Too much work. Haven't had a problem with it before. I usually check CreditKarma once a month anyways.

I already froze my Equifax, Experian, and Innovis reports. The TransUnion site is slow as molasses right now and keeps crashing. Also activated the 90-day fraud alerts and signed up for the AAA ProtectMyID free monitoring, and started the process of permanently opting out of mailed credit card offers. I feel like that's all I can do for now. Oh yeah, and retrieving the PIN that lifts your security freeze? It's only as simple as entering your SSN and other publicly available information. How convenient.

What a pain in the ass. Equifax deserves to be bankrupted, and forced to provide (through a third party, or some sort of government oversight) lifetime credit monitoring and protection for every single "customer" and the senior executives thrown in jail for this. They've proven they cannot handle the responsibility of their "service" and aren't to be trusted anymore. Scumbags. It's well past time for something better than SSNs as a damn password.

 

[walrus]

I could be affected I entered my information and got;

"Based on the information provided, we believe that your personal information may have been impacted by this incident.
Click the button below to continue your enrollment in TrustedID Premier"


But I just got a date next week when can get more information..

 

[senseamp]

Hopefully this helps destroy arbitration clauses once and for all. Also, FBI should be investigating. Too many coincidences.
Executives just happened to sell after leak was discovered.
They just happened to wait until a major Hurricane to release this information to consumers, giving criminals more than a month to do as they pleased.
Victims checking their hack status just happened to be steered into arbitration terms of service accessible through tiny link on the bottom of the page, and not presented during the registration process.
Credit monitoring just happened to only be for a year and automatically renewed unless opted out of.

Execs need to go to jail. And they pissed off a lot of potential jurors, not just with the hack, but with their behavior afterwards.
Politicians who supported forced arbitration need to be thrown out of office.

 

[senseamp]

I could be affected I entered my information and got;

"Based on the information provided, we believe that your personal information may have been impacted by this incident.
Click the button below to continue your enrollment in TrustedID Premier"


But I just got a date next week when can get more information..

It was just a trap to get you to give up your right to sue and agree to arbitration. I fell for it too.
https://theintercept.com/2017/09/08...-to-be-banned-just-like-the-cfpb-wants-to-do/

 

[snoopy7548]

Side question... do you think now is a good time to buy some Equifax stock or should I wait a bit longer?

 

[senseamp]

Side question... do you think now is a good time to buy some Equifax stock or should I wait a bit longer?

Market cap is $15B, down 13%, so about $2B, or only about $15 per hacked account that the market priced in. Would you settle for $15 if that's all they offered for lifetime risk of identity theft they exposed you to? Or even $100 per victim, which would wipe out their equity?
On top of that, would you pay them for future business? Do you want credit monitoring by Equifax, after they waited over a month to disclose their own breach?

 

[Crono]

Side question... do you think now is a good time to buy some Equifax stock or should I wait a bit longer?

Buy buy buy

 

[snoopy7548]

Just found this on reddit. Checked my PIN... yep, date followed by timestamp. Aren't there like, security experts working at these places?

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfi...read_recent_equifax_security/dmqvoqf/#dmqvoqf


Here's some more news. All data to be released on 9/15 unless Equifax pays 600 BitCoin ($2.66 million). I feel like the executives who sold their stock should be forced to pay the ransom. Yeah, it will only encourage more attacks, but there will be more attacks regardless. If the hackers still release the information after payment, at least the executives lost their winnings. Hopefully this is a wake up call and we actually learn something and evolve instead of putting a cheap band-aid over it.

http://mashable.com/2017/09/08/equifax-hackers-bitcoin-ransom/#QiBbIwGgqkqM

Am I naive for thinking these people are more commendable than the crooks at Experian?

 

[ponyo]

Equifax should be immediately forced to freeze credit files of the 143 million consumers. And any individual wanting to temporary thaw their credit should be allowed for free as many times as needed for the next 10 years. This should be done at the minimum in addition to all the penalties and lawsuits which we know won't be worth a damn. And we need to claw back bonuses and compensation from all Equifax executives. If this happened at any other business, the company would be bankrupt and out of business. Consumer sensitive data is their entire business and they failed miserably. They don't deserve to exist.

 

[Fingolfin269]

I'm to the point where whatever it takes to just force a complete overhaul of the identification system needs to be done. If them releasing all of this information into the wild is the catalyst we need then so be it.

 

[TheVrolok]

Placed security freeze for all 3 bureaus for both my spouse and I. Took like 20 minutes and 70 bucks. Will have to pull reports later, just wanted to get this done. Good thread.

Oh, and the fact that Equifax will not let you generate your own PIN and rather provides you a 10 digit pin with the first 6 digits being the fucking date .... I don't even. They should all go to prison for security that is this bad.

 

[ponyo]

Placed security freeze for all 3 bureaus for both my spouse and I. Took like 20 minutes and 70 bucks. Will have to pull reports later, just wanted to get this done. Good thread.

Oh, and the fact that Equifax will not let you generate your own PIN and rather provides you a 10 digit pin with the first 6 digits being the fucking date .... I don't even. They should all go to prison for security that is this bad.

Imagine $35 times 143 million people. That's extra $5 billion for these idiots if everyone froze their credit. They're getting paid for their gross incompetence. They can't lose and win no matter what. I think Georgia residents are charged $3 per freeze. I know I pay like $3 to thaw. And when I froze my credit years back, there was no online option. I had to mail in all my ID documents along with a letter requesting a freeze.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I feel like you shouldn't need to freeze anything. If your credit is destroyed due to this, seems ripe for a huge lawsuit that you should automatically win. The whole credit scam should be wiped off the planet. If these companies do not do right, and profit from this, it just goes further to prove that this country deserves a revolution and capitalism is NOT the way to go. Too much unchecked greed, and our current POTAS is NOT going to do what is right by this. He is too pro corporate greed. Corporations no longer believe in product, only the quickest way to a dollar regardless who they damage in the process.

I feel the same way about this as I do the Wells Fargo fiascos. Something needs to be done. Something very heavy. It won't stop it all, but it might give a few people pause.

 

[ArizonaSteve]

Shut the company down. Life sentences for all executives. Only way I'll be happy with this.

 

[TheVrolok]

Imagine $35 times 143 million people. That's extra $5 billion for these idiots if everyone froze their credit. They're getting paid for their gross incompetence. They can't lose and win no matter what. I think Georgia residents are charged $3 per freeze. I know I pay like $3 to thaw. And when I froze my credit years back, there was no online option. I had to mail in all my ID documents along with a letter requesting a freeze.

Yep. It really demonstrates how stacked the deck really is.

 

[ponyo]

Shut the company down. Life sentences for all executives. Only way I'll be happy with this.

It's complete horseshit no one ever gets punished for these gross incompetence. They issue shit insincere apologies, pay little fine, and it's business as usual. What incentive is there to change? And the execs had the nerve to sell their stocks before all this became public. Are you for real?

These assholes had a month to notify us. They had the time to setup a website for you to check if you were hacked but they can't send you simple letter notifying you? We have to find out from the media and then go to their site to check when they know if you were hacked or not? What kind of horseshit is this? They should be offering free credit freeze for everyone and paying the cost to freeze at the other two bureaus. It's insulting they're trying to make money from this by trying to enroll people in their shitty credit monitoring service that automatically renews if people don't cancel after the 1 year trial period. It's fucking shameful and they'll be given wrist slap and free pass because they're considered too vital to the financial credit system. It's disgusting.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I'm to the point where whatever it takes to just force a complete overhaul of the identification system needs to be done. If them releasing all of this information into the wild is the catalyst we need then so be it.

Importantly, we need to not be using multiple forms of identification as an authentication system. Right now some combination of Full Name, DOB, and SS number are used as a username/password, when really they're all just usernames, and non-resettable ones at that. A nationwide 'active directory/2FA' is really needed for a true authentication system.