5 ms·

You have to place the freeze on each of the three credit agencies individually. In most states it's $10 each, but it can vary state to state. https://www.free

You have to place the freeze on each of the three credit agencies individually. In most states it's $10 each, but it can vary state to state. https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo.jsp https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo... https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze/place-credit-freeze https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze/place-credit-freeze https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html

rcoder 9y ago
/me sighs The Equifax site appears broken in at least some browsers. Transunion wants me to sign up for an online account, and Experian charges a $10 fee in my state to place a freeze. All three want to collect my name, DOB, SSN, etc. _again_ in order to sign up. This is complete and utter BS. Credit reporting agencies are one of the greatest/worst rackets in the modern financial system.
- leggomylibro 9y ago
  "You could be at GRAVE RISK because we accidentally leaked your personal information. Please give us all of your personal information so that we can tell you if you were affected." It's almost funny, in a way. What, so I can become affected if I'm not already?
cjhanks 9y ago
I don't understand this. Equifax claims they just leaked my SSN, Drivers License, and other pertinent data to everybody. How would they possibly confirm that I am the one lifting the 'freeze'?
- krn1p4n1c 9y ago
  When you get your account frozen they provide a PIN to unlock.
  - hughes 9y ago
    And what happens if I call to unfreeze but have lost the PIN? Can I never get a loan again for the rest of my life? Or is there some way around the PIN - perhaps only requiring the already leaked information?
    - sjg007 9y ago
      You call them up... but this will probably no longer work b/c of the data breach. Otherwise you snail mail them a letter with a govt ID and they send you a new pin.
    - icelancer 9y ago
      >>And what happens if I call to unfreeze but have lost the PIN? Can I never get a loan again for the rest of my life? Exactly. There's no shot this "PIN" is like one-way a encryption passphrase. There is definitely a way around it.
TravelTechGuy 9y ago
I think you are missing something. Here's what's needed to initiate your TransUnion freeze: To set up a security freeze with TransUnion, please visit our online form. You should be prepared with the following types of information: 1. Your full name, including middle initial and suffix, such as Jr., Sr. II, III 2. Social Security Number 3. Date of birth 4. Current address 5. All addresses where you have lived during the past two years 6. Email address 7. A copy of a government-issued identification card, such as a driver’s license or state ID card, etc. 8. A copy of a utility bill, bank or insurance statement, etc. So, if I hack TU, all I need to do is get the data of the people who asked for a credit freeze. The problem is these companies, who non of us ever chose or nominated to collect our data, are careless with our PII. And until some accountability is added into the system, this will continue. I want to see Equifax's CEO, CTO, CSO and anyone who ever saw a report saying "we need to invest more in security" and ignored it, to pay. Preferably with their jobs.
- scarmig 9y ago
  Equifax can handle its internal management and operations however it wants. Externally, though, I want Equifax to have to pay a fine for every individual whose information was compromised. Identity theft can easily cause five figures worth of damage, so $10k per individual would be fair. Maybe as a warning shot we could lower this to... $1k? $100? That's the only way to properly align incentives so companies will proactively defend against attacks like this.
  - toomuchtodo 9y ago
    I would not doubt a class action lawsuit results from this, and I'd be very surprised if Elizabeth Warren didn't pursue congressional action against them (although not officers of the company unfortunately).
    - scarmig 9y ago
      And then I'll get six months of free credit monitoring from Equifax? Oh boy!!1! More seriously, this is a breach big enough that Equifax should honestly no longer exist as a company. So call it $100/incident, and I'm happy. Other agencies would still exist, and, although they're just as terrible, it might get them to kick their asses into high gear to fix their security.
hello_newman 9y ago
thanks for this info! saved me a lot of time hunting these links down myself

rcoder 9y ago

/me sighs The Equifax site appears broken in at least some browsers. Transunion wants me to sign up for an online account, and Experian charges a $10 fee in my state to place a freeze. All three want to collect my name, DOB, SSN, etc. _again_ in order to sign up. This is complete and utter BS. Credit reporting agencies are one of the greatest/worst rackets in the modern financial system.

leggomylibro 9y ago
"You could be at GRAVE RISK because we accidentally leaked your personal information. Please give us all of your personal information so that we can tell you if you were affected." It's almost funny, in a way. What, so I can become affected if I'm not already?

cjhanks 9y ago

I don't understand this. Equifax claims they just leaked my SSN, Drivers License, and other pertinent data to everybody. How would they possibly confirm that I am the one lifting the 'freeze'?

krn1p4n1c 9y ago
When you get your account frozen they provide a PIN to unlock.
- hughes 9y ago
  And what happens if I call to unfreeze but have lost the PIN? Can I never get a loan again for the rest of my life? Or is there some way around the PIN - perhaps only requiring the already leaked information?
  - sjg007 9y ago
    You call them up... but this will probably no longer work b/c of the data breach. Otherwise you snail mail them a letter with a govt ID and they send you a new pin.
  - icelancer 9y ago
    >>And what happens if I call to unfreeze but have lost the PIN? Can I never get a loan again for the rest of my life? Exactly. There's no shot this "PIN" is like one-way a encryption passphrase. There is definitely a way around it.

TravelTechGuy 9y ago

I think you are missing something. Here's what's needed to initiate your TransUnion freeze: To set up a security freeze with TransUnion, please visit our online form. You should be prepared with the following types of information: 1. Your full name, including middle initial and suffix, such as Jr., Sr. II, III 2. Social Security Number 3. Date of birth 4. Current address 5. All addresses where you have lived during the past two years 6. Email address 7. A copy of a government-issued identification card, such as a driver’s license or state ID card, etc. 8. A copy of a utility bill, bank or insurance statement, etc. So, if I hack TU, all I need to do is get the data of the people who asked for a credit freeze. The problem is these companies, who non of us ever chose or nominated to collect our data, are careless with our PII. And until some accountability is added into the system, this will continue. I want to see Equifax's CEO, CTO, CSO and anyone who ever saw a report saying "we need to invest more in security" and ignored it, to pay. Preferably with their jobs.

scarmig 9y ago
Equifax can handle its internal management and operations however it wants. Externally, though, I want Equifax to have to pay a fine for every individual whose information was compromised. Identity theft can easily cause five figures worth of damage, so $10k per individual would be fair. Maybe as a warning shot we could lower this to... $1k? $100? That's the only way to properly align incentives so companies will proactively defend against attacks like this.
- toomuchtodo 9y ago
  I would not doubt a class action lawsuit results from this, and I'd be very surprised if Elizabeth Warren didn't pursue congressional action against them (although not officers of the company unfortunately).
  - scarmig 9y ago
    And then I'll get six months of free credit monitoring from Equifax? Oh boy!!1! More seriously, this is a breach big enough that Equifax should honestly no longer exist as a company. So call it $100/incident, and I'm happy. Other agencies would still exist, and, although they're just as terrible, it might get them to kick their asses into high gear to fix their security.

hello_newman 9y ago

thanks for this info! saved me a lot of time hunting these links down myself