Equifax Extends Free Credit Monitoring -- But Outsources It To Experian (krebsonsecurity.com) 47
An anonymous reader quotes Krebs on Security:
A year after offering free credit monitoring to all Americans on account of its massive data breach that exposed the personal information of nearly 148 million people, Equifax now says it has chosen to extend the offer by turning to a credit monitoring service offered by a top competitor -- Experian. And to do that, it will soon be sharing with Experian contact information that affected consumers gave to Equifax in order to sign up for the service... Equifax says it will share the name, address, date of birth, Social Security number and self-provided phone number and email address with Experian for anyone who signed up for its original TrustedID Premier offering. That is, unless those folks affirmatively opt-out of having that information transferred from Equifax to Experian. But not to worry, Equifax says: Experian already has most of this data. "Experian currently has and is using this information (except phone number and email address) in the fulfillment of the Experian file monitoring which is part of your current service with TrustedID Premier," Equifax wrote in its email.
Krebs also points out the big problem with all credit monitoring services: "while they might let you know when someone has stolen your identity, they're not likely to prevent that from occurring in the first place." The best mechanism for preventing identity thieves from creating and abusing new accounts in your name is to freeze your credit file with Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. This process is now free for all Americans, and simply blocks potential creditors from viewing your credit file. Since very few creditors are willing to grant new lines of credit without being able to determine how risky it is to do so, freezing your credit file with the Big Three is a great way to stop all sorts of ID theft shenanigans... All three big bureaus tout their credit lock services as an easier and faster alternative to freezes -- mainly because these alternatives aren't as disruptive to their bottom lines....
TransUnion and Equifax both offer free credit lock services, while Experian's is free for 30 days and $19.99 for each additional month. However, TransUnion says those who take advantage of their free lock service agree to receive targeted marketing offers. What's more, TransUnion also pushes consumers who sign up for its free lock service to subscribe to its "premium" lock services for a monthly fee with a perpetual auto-renewal. Unsurprisingly, the bureaus' use of the term credit lock has confused many consumers; this was almost certainly by design. But here's one basic fact consumers should keep in mind about these lock services: Unlike freezes, locks are not governed by any law, meaning that the credit bureaus can change the terms of these arrangements when and if it suits them to do so.
Krebs also points out the big problem with all credit monitoring services: "while they might let you know when someone has stolen your identity, they're not likely to prevent that from occurring in the first place." The best mechanism for preventing identity thieves from creating and abusing new accounts in your name is to freeze your credit file with Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. This process is now free for all Americans, and simply blocks potential creditors from viewing your credit file. Since very few creditors are willing to grant new lines of credit without being able to determine how risky it is to do so, freezing your credit file with the Big Three is a great way to stop all sorts of ID theft shenanigans... All three big bureaus tout their credit lock services as an easier and faster alternative to freezes -- mainly because these alternatives aren't as disruptive to their bottom lines....
TransUnion and Equifax both offer free credit lock services, while Experian's is free for 30 days and $19.99 for each additional month. However, TransUnion says those who take advantage of their free lock service agree to receive targeted marketing offers. What's more, TransUnion also pushes consumers who sign up for its free lock service to subscribe to its "premium" lock services for a monthly fee with a perpetual auto-renewal. Unsurprisingly, the bureaus' use of the term credit lock has confused many consumers; this was almost certainly by design. But here's one basic fact consumers should keep in mind about these lock services: Unlike freezes, locks are not governed by any law, meaning that the credit bureaus can change the terms of these arrangements when and if it suits them to do so.
Re: (Score:3)
Because people see this and go, meh, what can I do about it anyway?
The owner class (Score:1)
Because these bureaus serve the owner class. The people that want us little people to saddle ourselves with quick and easy to get debt to buy shit. And then allows them to punish us when they fuck up or cheat.
It's another entity that rigs the system against us little people.
And Trump removed what little protections we had.
Voting Republican is shoving barbed wire up your own ass - without lube.
Horse Egress Notification Service (Score:5, Insightful)
We promise to tell you how many horses bolt from your barn.
What's that you say about closing the barn door? That's crazy talk!
Re: It's amazing that this is a problem (Score:2, Insightful)
After I moved to the US, I was really surprised how weak and how commonly used the SSN is. A real joke.
At some point, the federal government is gonna have to step up and seriously fix identity and identity theft.
Re: It's amazing that this is a problem (Score:5, Insightful)
How are they supposed to perform due diligence?
The bank believes that it gave money to person A when in fact it gave it to person B because person B told the bank that he is person A. From the bank's POV, the bank gave credit to person A and thus expects that person A pays it back.
Oh. You mean that bank should ask the person asking for money for some proof of identity? Something that can be carried in a wallet. Something that is difficult to forge. Something with a person's picture. Something that can be verified against a central database. Something that is issued to everyone for free when they reach some legal age ... crazy talk, isn't it?
Re:It's amazing that this is a problem (Score:5, Insightful)
This used to be called bank fraud. This put the banks on the hook for it and the feds investigated it.
With a magic want they kept telling everyone it was identity theft. Like someone stealing your bike from your yard. This made the person who's had the theft on the hook. And we all know how hard the local cops look for the bike thief.
All day long this is still bank fraud, and the banks who gave the thief the money should be on the hook for it.
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That's unfair. You are trying to put up barriers to poor people and minorities from getting credit cards to try to build their credit.
Expecting a bank to be able to verify someone's identity for credit is akin to the old Jim Crow laws of past
close them all (Score:3)
Replace them with a P2P for creditors, and REQUIRE a signed hard-copy release from the credit applicant before disclosing any data to anyone with the penalty of forbidding the violator from engaging in any form of credit, permanently.
That would stop all of the credit-phishing searches, for one thing, and yt would speed up the checkout lines at certain retailers (Target, for example), since they would no longer be signing up customers for credit there.
"Credit Lock" Doesn't Even Block Identity Fraud (Score:1, Interesting)
Speaking from recent experience, even with credit locks, criminals who know your name and address can open bank accounts in your name, then overdraw those accounts. Wells Fargo permitted this - the criminal did not even have the correct driver's license number. No credit checks involved, so they did nothing to stop it.
Freeze your credit... it's free in USA (Score:5, Informative)
Everyone, listen to me, don't play the game.
Just freeze your credit at the big three and call it it good.
It is not a big deal to unfreeze for a period of time or unfreeze for a specific creditor.
These guys created a solution to a problem that consumers didn't ask for and now that it is a security disaster, they want you to pay them for protection and cleaning up their mess.
The credit reporting agencies have a track record of incompetence and apathy toward the people who have their identity stolen, (spoken from experience).
Freeze your credit, do it now. It takes about 20 minutes to do all three. Make sure you print all the screens, write down your PINS, and file them away safely.
Re:Freeze your credit... it's free in USA (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course, a few weeks ago, here on /. we saw an article that thousands of PINs needed to unfreeze credit were leaked.
Freeze your credit (Score:5, Insightful)
Leaving aside the argument about the credit monitoring services themselves for a moment..
Freeze your credit record, if you haven't already. I did this years ago and it works really well. You give them a 6 digit PIN and without that PIN it's impossible to get so much as a cell phone much less open a line of credit. When you want to refi your home or some such, you just thaw it for a 10 day period and it re-freezes automatically.
"I shouldn't have to do that" is not going to much comfort if someone steals your identity.
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Thousands of those PINS were recently leaked into the wild along with associated name and address.
I'll put the popcorn on.
what is all this? (Score:4, Interesting)
What is this business of credit monitoring and why is it needed?
Re:what is all this? (Score:5, Informative)
Three businesses - Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion store the credit history of almost every credit transaction in the country. It is almost impossible to get credit without a report from them to the prospective lender and every one of those lenders forwards their history (balances, current payment amount, late payments,...) to them in exchange. The businesses will sell that data to anyone with the money, so many credit card companies periodically scan the data for prospective customers. In addition, since no real checking is done whether a prospective credit customer is really the person on whom the records are kept, thieves will take some semblance of identification to a lender and apply for credit, and the purported borrower is forced to expend considerable time and money to have that falsely issued credit removed. Locking the database is about the only way to prevent this, and, until THIS YEAR, the businesses were allowed to charge ridiculous fees to lock the records (the fees were charges to cover the loss of profits, and more, from selling the data).
Re: (Score:2)
"Credit monitoring" tells you when new credit is issued in your name. As an earlier poster pointed out, the is like closing the barn door after the horses have run off. The damage has already been done.
Re: (Score:2)
When this comes into play is when you want to get some form of credit. That might be anything from getting a mobile phone on a monthly payment plan, f
I opted out (Score:2)
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There's a solution to all this. (Score:2)
It involves Blockchain.
[ a young, hipster tech-douche will fill in the rest -- with a link to his Bitcoin VC fund wallet ... ]
Re: (Score:3)
Why would a non-mutable, cryptographically signed data store not be part of the solution?
Wouldn't success largely depend on the key management scheme?
Freeze your credit (Score:2)
Hit the credit bureaus where it counts: freeze your credit reports.
While this does make it more difficult if you apply for new credit (you need to un-freeze) it screws up the credit bureau's business model; they cannot make any money selling your credit report when frozen.
Someone has stolen your identity (Score:2)
Mitchell & Webb Sound - Identity Theft [youtube.com]