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Equifax

Asa

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The fucking Exquifax data breach!

One of the largest data breaches in the country. Over 143 Million people's information may have been compromised.

Are there any financial experts on the forum who can give us information, or instructions to protect ourselves?

Exquifax is telling people to enroll w/ them to find out if they've been compromised. I'm naturally suspicious of any company that just had a huge breach, then offers the solution of enrolling with them to fix it. - The argument is that they already have all our info, so giving them 6 digits of our SS numbers and our last names won't make a difference.
Your 'enrollment date' is days after you sign up, and you need to remember to report back to continue enrolling and checking at that time.

The breach check is supposed to be free, but people whose enrollment dates have already arrived have complained that they were asked to pay $5 to enroll to see if Equifax breached their private financial information. This is immoral and reeks of a scam, but what else are we supposed to do?
(^^ Not sure if this $5 fee is to freeze credit w/ different companies, or a fee to check if you've been breached. I've just heard people complain about Equifax charging a fee.)

How do we protect ourselves from having our identities and money stolen?

What of breaches like this one say about our economy, finances and currency, online storage of private information, and 'credit check' companies? Thoughts?

Related Fact About Credit Score Companies and Checking Credit: If you check your credit score your credit goes down. Do not check your credit before asking for a loan or a refi. If the bank checks your credit twice, they will give you a higher interest rate based on the fact that your credit was checked too many times, even though they are the only ones who checked it.
- I've had this happen twice, once during a mortgage refi and once when applying for a mortgage. Both times my credit and my SO's were perfect, but we still received higher interest rates, based on having "too many credit score checks".


Article On How to Freeze Your Credit:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...protect-your-identity/?utm_term=.e2ccdd00f90f


edited for typo
 
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As our data becomes digital there's no way to protect it.
I've probably been victim of 10 + and I'd be surprised if there were people with less.
It doesn't make it ok but it's not like I expect different at this point.
The only option is to go back to using cash but even then banks are expected to secure your data and we already know they don't care.
 
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@Eventhorizon - Agree.

My SO and I use cash for everything we can, but we own property (which we cannot pay for in cash... I wish!), so we are tied to financial institutions that way.

People should be able to sue Equifax if they are compromised due to this breach, because Equifax has our information without our permission. Also, Equifax should freeze our credit reports for free. The fees add up.
– This is the idealist in me speaking. I know this is unrealistic.