quote:

Originally posted by Perception:
I think the confusion comes from poor writing.

like this, the very first sentence in the article:

A new lawsuit is claiming hackers have gained access to the personal information of "billions of individuals," including their Social Security numbers, current and past addresses and the names of siblings and parents — personal data that could allow fraudsters to infiltrate financial accounts or take out loans in their names.

So this "freezing your credit report" stuff. Shouldn't this be the default? Shouldn't you have to give explicit permission to allow an entity access to your credit information?

WRT the "billions" confusion, apparently each address/marriage/etc. generates a record in the database, so some individuals might have dozens of records making a ten-fold bulge not unlikely.

Another thing, there have sprung up a plethora of "how to check if you are affected" web sites. Each of these requires opening an "account" on the site, even the so-called "free" ones. Yet another point of vulnerability expanding the attack surface, and exposing one to yet another source of SPAM.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
So this "freezing your credit report" stuff. Shouldn't this be the default? Shouldn't you have to give explicit permission to allow an entity access to your credit information?

Supposedly there has been proposed legislation that will do exactly this, credit reports are frozen by default. I suspect the credit lobby has strongly influenced these bills, since they make their money off of credit reports being easy to access by lenders. The whole thing is infuriating.

I recently froze my reports at the big 3, as well as Innovis and ChexSystems. I helped my parents do the same.

Everyone should keep their credit reports frozen. Open them temporarily when needed. It’s a pain but at least they cannot open accounts since they have all my info.

Was notified today that mine was included in this hack. Oh well.

I've already had my credit frozen at all the bureaus since about 3 data leaks ago. And I've had free credit monitoring in place since 1 or 2 data leaks ago.

So same shit, different day.

Keeping it all frozen isn't that big of a hassle, considering I only open new credit accounts about once a decade anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Was notified today that mine was included in this hack. Oh well.

I got a notification today, too. I keep my credit frozen as well. I haven't had any fraudulent activity on my credit report. I need to check my Social Security statement, I suppose.

quote:

Originally posted by mrvmax:
Everyone should keep their credit reports frozen. Open them temporarily when needed. It’s a pain but at least they cannot open accounts since they have all my info.

Serious question by a guy that doesn’t know much about this: What circumstances require them to be opened temporarily?

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
Serious question by a guy that doesn’t know much about this: What circumstances require them to be opened temporarily?

If you went to buy something expensive and got a no interest credit card, (pay off the balance before date X) like my last truck tire purchase, you would have unfreeze your credit so the company could look you up.
Then re-freeze your credit.

ETA: wife just got notified by Chase that her stuff is in the wind…I haven’t been told anything yet. Even though we share a joint account for house bills.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
Serious question by a guy that doesn’t know much about this: What circumstances require them to be opened temporarily?

You'd need to unfreeze your credit before opening any new line of credit. So, for example, before applying for a new credit card, student loan, car loan, home mortgage, etc.

Basically, you cannot borrow any additional money with your credit frozen. But this is good, because bad guys with your info also cannot sneak around and open any new accounts. And unlike them, you have the ability to unfreeze it at will, for the times when you know you're going to be opening a new credit line.

You can just keep it frozen until you need to open a new credit line, then temporarily unfreeze it until that's accomplished, then freeze it back again.

Being frozen doesn't negatively affect existing credit lines you already have. Those continue to function as normal.

For troglodytes like me that didn’t know:

How to freeze your credit ratings at all three credit bureaus:
https://www.experian.com/blogs...aud/security-freeze/

It appears that I’ll need to create an account at each of the three credit bureaus. Thank God for my PW manager. A unique long, strong PW for each account.

Yes, and you have to freeze/unfreeze your credit at each one individually.

But oftentimes, when applying for a line of credit, they'll tell you which bureau(s) they're going to pull from ahead of time, which means you can just unfreeze only the pertinent one(s).

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:

quote:

Originally posted by mrvmax:
Everyone should keep their credit reports frozen. Open them temporarily when needed. It’s a pain but at least they cannot open accounts since they have all my info.

Serious question by a guy that doesn’t know much about this: What circumstances require them to be opened temporarily?

Sorry, just now seeing this. Glad you found out how to do it.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Yes, and you have to freeze/unfreeze your credit at each one individually.

But oftentimes, when applying for a line of credit, they'll tell you which bureau(s) they're going to pull from ahead of time, which means you can just unfreeze only the pertinent one(s).

The idiots at Toyota told me they use one then ended up using two so I had to use my phone to unfreeze the other while while the finance guy was waiting. Doesn't seem hard except I need reading glasses and did not have them.