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I don't own any credit cards and I do not use credit. Am I still at risk for having credit taken out in my name if I don't enroll in this "credit freeze" protec

I don't own any credit cards and I do not use credit. Am I still at risk for having credit taken out in my name if I don't enroll in this "credit freeze" protection racket people keep mentioning?

fragsworth 9y ago
Yes. If someone fraudulently enrolls for credit in your name, the organization that issued the credit comes after you to pay it back.
jsymolon 9y ago
Yes. The issuing banks don't care if you get a low interest card or 25% per annum. I lived at my current address for 20+ years and still a bank issued a credit card for someone 3 states away .... I have a credit monitoring (not through Equifax, Transunion or the other one; 3rd party) due to a identity breach through Blue Cross a few years ago. The credit monitoring alerted me that the bank issued a credit card 3 states away. That 3-way call between the monitoring agency, myself and the issuing bank was interesting.
- kakarot 9y ago
  Thank you. Since I don't participate in the credit market, have no affiliation with any bank and do not affiliate with any credit reporting agency, I see absolutely no reason that I should have to pay into this protection racket to cover their asses. I don't even know how to do this credit freeze thing and have no interest in learning for the next foreseeable couple of years, until I have money worth investing in something. And what about all of those who are homeless, have no internet/phone access, live in the wilderness, etc? What's to stop them from re-entering society in 10 years only to discover they have a massive amount of debt? There must be some way for me to exclude myself from this market, from the woefully inadequate security practices of our financial system, without paying a "protection". If there isn't, I would sooner spend thousands on a lawsuit than I would tuck my tail between my legs and pay up. I'd like to look into this 3rd party agency you mentioned, if you don't mind sharing the name.
  - jsymolon 9y ago
    https://www.allclearid.com/personal/ https://www.allclearid.com/personal/ (my .02; just because you want to exclude yourself doesn't mean that you can avoid the fallout of someone impersonating you. An identity theft is costly to clean up and better to be caught early than 10,000's or 100,000's in the red. Some aspects, being alert and checking periodically can save headaches in the long run.)
  - astura 9y ago
    Have you ever had a post paid cellphone plan? Rented an apartment? Gotten car insurance? If so you are probably in the database. You can check what data these companies have on you here: https ://www.annualcreditreport.com/ >What's to stop them from re-entering society in 10 years only to discover they have a massive amount of debt? Nothing. They would have to file several disputes. >There must be some way for me to exclude myself from this market, from the woefully inadequate security practices of our financial system There is not. >I'd like to look into this 3rd party agency you mentioned, if you don't mind sharing the name. I am not the person you are replying to but I do my credit monitoring with Credit Karma and it's free.
jstarfish 9y ago
YES! Most people don't realize this, but credit checks are standard with many employment applications, apartment applications and utility connections (cell phones, electric, gas, etc). You may not have an open line of credit, but by virtue of the fact that your SSN/PII was queried, it creates a stub profile in the database. Your SSN, address, license number, whatever you provided are now within potential scope of this leak-- you just have no credit associated with your identity. Armed with the PII the fraudster can have gleaned from this leak, there's nothing stopping them from opening accounts in your name. (FD: ex-employee. This is not a pitch in favor of their solutions, only an advisement that you should not assume you're safe.)
- kakarot 9y ago
  Apologies for my ignorance, but what is the best method of recourse here? If I need to freeze my credit by necessity of covering the asses of other credit companies whose bad security practices lead to being hacked, I'll be damned if I will be paying any sort of fee to freeze my credit. That should be covered by Equifax.
  - jstarfish 9y ago
    I agree with your principles. Unfortunately I don't have a solution to recommend. As with all cybersecurity incidents there are going to be a lot of vultures circling this mess, happy to Hoover up your money in exchange for nebulous "protection"-- but even Lifelock got hacked some years ago. Paying for "credit protection" doesn't also address some of the other things fraudsters can do armed with your PII, such as filing and collecting fraudulent tax returns. Have fun sorting that out. My own data was leaked. What am I doing? Admitting I'm fucked, refusing to feed the vultures, and for all else I have the number of a good attorney.

I don't own any credit cards and I do not use credit. Am I still at risk for having credit taken out in my name if I don't enroll in this "credit freeze" protection racket people keep mentioning?

fragsworth 9y ago

Yes. If someone fraudulently enrolls for credit in your name, the organization that issued the credit comes after you to pay it back.

jsymolon 9y ago

Yes. The issuing banks don't care if you get a low interest card or 25% per annum. I lived at my current address for 20+ years and still a bank issued a credit card for someone 3 states away .... I have a credit monitoring (not through Equifax, Transunion or the other one; 3rd party) due to a identity breach through Blue Cross a few years ago. The credit monitoring alerted me that the bank issued a credit card 3 states away. That 3-way call between the monitoring agency, myself and the issuing bank was interesting.

kakarot 9y ago
Thank you. Since I don't participate in the credit market, have no affiliation with any bank and do not affiliate with any credit reporting agency, I see absolutely no reason that I should have to pay into this protection racket to cover their asses. I don't even know how to do this credit freeze thing and have no interest in learning for the next foreseeable couple of years, until I have money worth investing in something. And what about all of those who are homeless, have no internet/phone access, live in the wilderness, etc? What's to stop them from re-entering society in 10 years only to discover they have a massive amount of debt? There must be some way for me to exclude myself from this market, from the woefully inadequate security practices of our financial system, without paying a "protection". If there isn't, I would sooner spend thousands on a lawsuit than I would tuck my tail between my legs and pay up. I'd like to look into this 3rd party agency you mentioned, if you don't mind sharing the name.
- jsymolon 9y ago
  https://www.allclearid.com/personal/ https://www.allclearid.com/personal/ (my .02; just because you want to exclude yourself doesn't mean that you can avoid the fallout of someone impersonating you. An identity theft is costly to clean up and better to be caught early than 10,000's or 100,000's in the red. Some aspects, being alert and checking periodically can save headaches in the long run.)
- astura 9y ago
  Have you ever had a post paid cellphone plan? Rented an apartment? Gotten car insurance? If so you are probably in the database. You can check what data these companies have on you here: https ://www.annualcreditreport.com/ >What's to stop them from re-entering society in 10 years only to discover they have a massive amount of debt? Nothing. They would have to file several disputes. >There must be some way for me to exclude myself from this market, from the woefully inadequate security practices of our financial system There is not. >I'd like to look into this 3rd party agency you mentioned, if you don't mind sharing the name. I am not the person you are replying to but I do my credit monitoring with Credit Karma and it's free.

jstarfish 9y ago

YES! Most people don't realize this, but credit checks are standard with many employment applications, apartment applications and utility connections (cell phones, electric, gas, etc). You may not have an open line of credit, but by virtue of the fact that your SSN/PII was queried, it creates a stub profile in the database. Your SSN, address, license number, whatever you provided are now within potential scope of this leak-- you just have no credit associated with your identity. Armed with the PII the fraudster can have gleaned from this leak, there's nothing stopping them from opening accounts in your name. (FD: ex-employee. This is not a pitch in favor of their solutions, only an advisement that you should not assume you're safe.)

kakarot 9y ago
Apologies for my ignorance, but what is the best method of recourse here? If I need to freeze my credit by necessity of covering the asses of other credit companies whose bad security practices lead to being hacked, I'll be damned if I will be paying any sort of fee to freeze my credit. That should be covered by Equifax.
- jstarfish 9y ago
  I agree with your principles. Unfortunately I don't have a solution to recommend. As with all cybersecurity incidents there are going to be a lot of vultures circling this mess, happy to Hoover up your money in exchange for nebulous "protection"-- but even Lifelock got hacked some years ago. Paying for "credit protection" doesn't also address some of the other things fraudsters can do armed with your PII, such as filing and collecting fraudulent tax returns. Have fun sorting that out. My own data was leaked. What am I doing? Admitting I'm fucked, refusing to feed the vultures, and for all else I have the number of a good attorney.