How to tell if you got Caught In Equifax's ID Theft

[james.hendrickson]

So you've probably been following the massive hack of Equifax's data. CNN Money is reporting that in addition to 143 million people being potentially impacted, credit card numbers for about 209,000 people and personal identifying information for 182,000 customers of the company are also involved.

The population of the United States is 325 million people as of today. This means that about 44% of the country was impacted. Since you're here on Saving Advice you probably have an Equifax account, so you may be wanting to check to see if the data theft impacted you.

Equifax has set up a website to allow you to check. The URL is here.

You need to enter in your last name and the last six digits of your social security number.

Equifax is going to want you to sign up for their credit monitoring service to see if your account has any suspicious activity on it. CNN Money is also reporting that in order to sign up for this service, Equifax is trying to get people to agree to arbitration instead of the ability to sign on to a class action lawsuit.

If you do want to use their credit monitoring service, but want to opt out of the arbitration clause, you need to write a letter to Equifax within 30 days of receiving their credit monitoring service. According to ABS News, the address to send your letter is:

Equifax Consumer Services LLC
Attn.: Arbitration Opt-Out
P.O. Box 105496
Atlanta, GA 30348

You'll want to include your name, address, and Equifax User ID, as well as a clear statement that you do not wish to resolve disputes with Equifax through arbitration.

As a bit of an editorial, let's all hope that Equifax learns the value of good data security and finds their way to clear towards making their customers whole.

[Drake3287]

Although my account isn't included in this yet, these type's of large security breaches happen all the time. Target as another good example. Why is that these huge security hacks happen on a regular basis and these companies appear to truly not care.

Do we as consumers have the right to sue these big corporations for doing this to us? Hard to believe that if a million people sued every time this stuff happened they wouldn't take notice or protect our data better.

And once again our government looks the other way and big business make's out. No one cares for the consumer even though we have all these Federal Consumer Agencies.

[kork13]

Thanks for this, I was wondering how to check if we were part of it. Not surprisingly, my wife & I were both part of the breach. 44% of ALL Americans? Criminy! I doubt my children will have had information with Equifax, because they've never had any credit or anything. Haven't checked to confirm, since I don't know their SSN by memory, but think about it... If you assume children were not part of the breach, and the average family has 2-3 children, that means that nearly EVERY SINGLE HOUSEHOLD in America is likely a part of this. Yeesh. And this is also one of the most complete breaches that had happened recently as well.... Since it's from the credit reporting agency, they got exactly everything needed to open new (fraudulent) credit accounts in our names.

'1 year of credit monitoring' as the solution is pretty pitiful. That seems to be standard, because that's what we were offered by Target, Home Depot, OPM, etc. during each of their respective data beaches. Doesn't it seem easy that these hackers could sell our data now & just wait a few years to start using it?

I've literally received "free" credit monitoring consistently for the last few years with all of the data breaches. Which I suppose is good, considering that I never know when they're finally going to try to do something with my information that has been stolen so repeatedly... It's just frustrating.

[james.hendrickson]

Woah...Equifax's chief security officer appears to have a degree in music composition.

[~bs]

158m accounts stolen, there's something like 320 mil people in the US. Assume a coin toss that your info got stolen.

[Nutria]

158m accounts stolen, there's something like 320 mil people in the US. Assume a coin toss that your info got stolen.

You're including children in that 320M, and ignoring families. Thus, everyone with a credit history got their info stolen.

[Nutria]

My two adult teenagers who's only "credit history" is being authorized users on one of my cards were also impacted.

[creditcardfree]

Thanks for bringing up children! Will definitely check them, too. We are affected. And like kork, we have had monitoring services for quite a few years. I'm most upset by this one and the OPM (Office of Personnel Management) breaches. This is getting ridiculous!

[disneysteve]

Woah...Equifax's chief security officer appears to have a degree in music composition.

What does that have to do with anything? Are you suggesting she somehow isn't qualified because of that? As we've discussed here many times, your college major has very little to do with your future career or professional success. Good for her for being yet another person to prove that point.

[~bs]

^


Probably wouldnt be a talking point for detractors if her department's IT security lapses didn't just lead to the theft of the id of "everyone with a credit history" as Nutria put it.

The fact that the head doesn't even have a bachelor's in something IT related also brings questions of competency into my mind as well. Say a head heart surgeon screws up and a patient dies. Then you discover that that surgeon doesn't even have a 2-4 year degree in medicine! Instead, he/she has a degree in english and was elevated to their position by learning "on the job" and rubbing shoulders with the right people.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

thanks a lot for the heads up.

[creditcardfree]

A reader pointed on my blog post that by signing up for the credit monitoring you may give up your rights to be part of a class action lawsuit or to sue privately. Read the details carefully and make the right decision for you.

[~bs]

The bastards included that provision in the fine print for signing up for their credit monitoring.

I'll take a pass and opt in on the class action suit.

[snafu]

Has anyone been appointed to head up the Bureau of Consumer Protection? That agency is tasked with the duty to protect Americans from various types of fraud. Does anyone complain to Ombudsman or the Citizens Advice Consumer Service? Do you know what action to take if you suspect identify theft?

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

If you read the terms of use you will see that via a written, mailed statement sent within 30 days you can rescind that agreement to arbitration rather than personal or class action lawsuit. So all is not lost if you want to follow-up but accidentally signed away your rights.