A credit freeze protects only against new accounts being opened in your name — one of the rarest types of identity theft out there, affecting only 4% of victims, according to the most recent Bureau of Justice Statistics data..
Equifax finds itself in a crosshairs not seen since the 2013 Target breach; the legal and regulatory repercussions are coming at record speed.
Equifax announced late Friday that its chief information officer and chief security officer would leave the company immediately, following the enormous breach of 143 million Americans’ personal information.
In what is being dubbed as potentially the “worst leak of personal information EVER”, the Equifax data breach that has affected an estimated 143 million people, is MAJOR news . A few things to know:
1: Be careful to NOT go to the Equifax site and scheck to see if your data was compromised and/or sign up for their offer of free monitoring from “TrustedID”. Signing up for htis free monitoring, requires you to agree to Equifax terms of serivce, which includes binding arbitration, and would therefore restrict you from access to the courts for remedy. A Sneaky move by Equifax.
2. Place a 90 day “Fraud Alert” on your file at Equifax. http://ift.tt/10FGxth
They will, in turn notify Experian and TransUnion on your behalf, so you dont need to contact them separately.
3. Contact Legal Counsel if you know that you were impacted by this data breach and it has resulted in damages. Equifax knew about this data breach long enough for several of their top Executives to sell company stock of almost $2 million, PRIOR to alerting the public about the breach.
MORE TO COME
In a post on Nextdoor, Police discuss a Federal Trade Commission case where a debt collection agency from Charlotte, NC pretended to be lawyers, using “a variety of names to make people think they were dealing with a law firm.”
