In defense of my credit, it's probably time to lock that down. Am now weighing pros/cons of:
1) 90 day fraud alert
- no brainer
- free
- expense
- retired, so less need to unfreeze
- extra paperwork
SSN = screwed. Driver's license, however, can be changed. At least I've heard it can be changed in some states. Worth checking!
@George One upside though with multiple years is that hopefully this breach was big enough that now SSN and such data is now regarded as tainted and no longer usable as a secret. It might take a bit of time for that to happen. There will definitely be people/organizations that don't get the memo though.We can assign a different number only if:
* Sequential numbers assigned to members of the same family are causing problems;
* More than one person is assigned or using the same number;
* A victim of identity theft continues to be disadvantaged by using the original number;
* There is a situation of harassment, abuse or life endangerment; or
* An individual has religious or cultural objections to certain numbers or digits in the original number. (We require written documentation in support of the objection from a religious group with which the number holder has an established relationship.)
+1George the original one wrote: ↑Mon Sep 11, 2017 4:05 pmReally, though, I think the insidious nature of this particular hack is the potential for future abuse, 2, 3, 5 years down the road. After all, the criminals know the accounts are likely to be frozen for 6-12 months, so they can afford to sit on it. Your info is effectively more wide open than ever before because this batch contains enough information to duplicate your entire financial identity and it can't be taken back.
IIRC, the "they" that breached the OPM was the Chinese military, I always figured they were looking for people to turn, not identities to steal. But this recent hack could have been by identity farmers who actually want to do that.jennypenny wrote: ↑Mon Sep 11, 2017 7:29 pmIt's hard for me to get worked up over the Equifax breach since they did SQUAT when OPM was breached. Granted, it was only 22 million people, but it included background and fingerprint information. If my fingerprints are out there, what's the point of changing my SS number?
If you do change accounts, pick a bank that has a good reputation for how it handles ID theft and fraudulent accounts. Chase has a good reputation, Wells Fargo not so much.
Krebs is an authority in the tech security field.If you’ve been paying attention in recent years, you might have noticed that just about everyone is losing your personal data. Even if you haven’t noticed (or maybe you just haven’t actually received a breach notice), I’m here to tell you that if you’re an American, your basic personal data is already for sale. What follows is a primer on what you can do to avoid becoming a victim of identity theft as a result of all this data (s)pillage.
Just saw this bit in that link which is good to know and I think would be adequate going forward.SavingWithBabies wrote: ↑Tue Sep 12, 2017 11:54 amIt also links to Are Credit Monitoring Services Worth It?.
Normally, I place fraud alerts on my credit file every 90 days, as allowed by law. This step is supposed to require potential creditors to contact you and obtain your permission before opening new lines of credit in your name. You merely need to file a fraud alert (also called a “security alert”) with one of the credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian or Trans Union). Whichever one you file with is required by law to alert the other two bureaus as well.
Most consumers don’t know this (few consumers know the names of the three main credit bureaus), but there is actually a fourth credit bureau that you should alert: Innovis. This bureau follows the same rules as the big three, and you may file a fraud alert with them at this link.
Fraud alerts last 90 days, and you can renew them as often as you like (a recurring calendar entry can help with this task);
Here.suomalainen wrote: ↑Tue Sep 12, 2017 12:25 pm@cmonkey - source?
Meaning, are you suggesting that Equifax will pay for freezes at the other two agencies also?