It isn't just Equifax- even if the fraud totally disappears of your credit report, you now have to deal with the creditor who issued the cash. Identity theft or not, they will attempt to collect from you. If it's big and expensive enough, you can expect to be served over it.

Some of you may even become unknowing cosigners of cars, credit card accounts, etc..

rjp

says that my info has been compromised.

I checked credit reports and credit cards and see nothing that appears odd. credit score remains in tact.

May not (probably won't) happen right away but certainly can for many years to come, without warning. Lock it down.

This^^sums up the problem we all face. Freezing your credit reports only protects you from an attempt to establish new credit under your identity. The credit reports you receive only report on credit activity under your name. However, the ticking time-bomb is the identity theft possibilities that may come at any time in the foreseeable future that can impact your credit report, examples of which Randy mentioned.

Many circumstance can lead to your credit being attacked without the need to get a "frozen" credit report. Someone can go to the doctor, claim to be you, have an insurance card in your name, and incur a large bill that they fail to pay. A front office that doesn't run a credit check on a new patient now has established a claim against "you." When it goes to collection, you are held accountable and you are reported to the three credit agencies.

An ID thief can change your address or passwords for legitimate accounts you currently hold. You never know of the charges/activity because you're no longer being notified. Soon, your credit report shows delinquent payments.

A minor version happened to me recently. I began getting an additional newspaper delivered to my house that I hadn't subscribed to. For three days, I thought it was just a mistake by the delivery person as I do receive a paper, but not that particular one. I called after the third delivery and was told that a subscription was opened for my address by someone who I had never heard of. It was in conjunction with a "fund raiser." Apparently, the only thing necessary to open an account is the street address and phone number--something that can be obtained from a phone book. I never got a notification that I was a new subscriber.

The point is, it is now up to all of us to monitor all activity on current accounts, look for evidence of accounts that are unfamiliar, don't ignore bills/calls from businesses or services that claim you owe them money, freeze our credit reports, and expect to be a victim of ID theft sometime in the future.

Just tried to get copies of my credit reports. Transunion's site was unable to complete the process due to "technical" difficulties. Equifax, basically the same reason. Both advised mailing the requests. I was able to get a copy from Experian.

Looks like this has shaken up the population (myself, included) to take some steps to gain control, if nothing more than being notified that we're being impacted by thieves.

You guys worry too much. Our US Congress, with a 15.8% approval rating, is gonna get to the bottom of this.

I read, heard, saw on TV - don't remember which, the info will most likely be sold over seas with not much activity until after the "year of free credit monitoring" is completed.

It will help. My ID got stolen when my employer got hacked. Loans and credit cards were being issued in my name. I got wind of that and started the process to wipe those out. I issued the freeze request and all the fraud stopped.

"An ID thief can change your address or passwords for legitimate accounts you currently hold. You never know of the charges/activity because you're no longer being notified. Soon, your credit report shows delinquent payments."

Indeed, this is one of the things that led me to check. I noted that I wasn't getting much mail so I checked with the post office. YUP my addy had been changed. So I chided them severely for not confirming and carried on.

Day of the breach= not affected. Today?
 

affected.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1505052938.jpg

This was the title of your post, " Day of the breach= not affected. Today?

I am I correct in understanding that you checked your status on the first day the news was released and you were not compromised, but today, the situation has changed?

If that's the case, Equifax has absolutely no credibility left. They've had over six weeks to determine the extent of the breach and they still cannot accurately tell who has been hit.:mad:

Exactamundo.

Trust has never been one of my stronger qualities. So far that has never let me down.

Since our SSN's are now common knowledge, what's there to protect? It's about Fraud Detection from now on- a lifetime thing.

rjp

Agree^^. We must assume all our personal data is "out there." The years of being careful not to let things out is over. That was a pro-active effort. We are now on defense, waiting the inevitable assault on our good standing, hoping to detect it before significant damage is done, and only able to take action after the fact.

Consumer protection is the responsibility of the consumer, regardless of what business claims.

So the entire planet is going to back its way out of eCommerce? Apparently, nothing in cyberspace is totally secure and it's probably not even possible to go totally off-line, anyway.

This happened back in May, IIRC. For 4 months nobody knew their info had been stolen. Who knows how much fraudulent activity has already gone on?

And what's worse is that the people who used discipline and hustle to get their great credit scores will be the most affected by this breach. Nobody is gonna steal anybody's bad credit.

Somebody needs to tell me when it's time to panic.

Well next time Equifax will be ready!!

So, they won't steal our info again?

Too late. Nothing left to protect. It's over for EFX.

And another thing:

I just thought of how much commercial activity is going to be necessary in the gulf region post-hurricanes.

There's gonna be tons of newly unidentifiable people all scrambling to borrow their ways back to normalcy. All with no money and no way to get some.

Wells Fargo will be all over it!

Not just no money and no credit either. With this cyberquake of a breach, allotta people down there all of a sudden got no everything.

My thoughts, exactly, but panic will do you no good.

It comes down to this, IMO, we have to look at ID theft as we do residential burglary. In this case, thieves have the key to your front door and we cannot change the lock by getting a new SSN. The only thing we can do is put alarms on all the doors and windows (fraud alerts), chains on all the doors (security freeze on credt), continually monitor these defenses (get your credit reports regularly), and notify the authorities if someone is trying to gain entrance.

Our best hope is, much like residential burglary, thieves tend to hit targets that have weaker defenses. Make your defenses obvious and you may be by-passed.

Just thinking back to some fraud that took place in my past thanks to a "medical professional". How easy it would be to pretend to be any of those compromised people with their name, SSN, and address. They do no background check or verification at care centers if you're uninsured.

That and tons of services let you enroll without true verification. Add in someone's CC# and their financial life is over. My wife and I are freezing our credit, especially after all the work we did for over a year to improve our credit to buy a home. Fing ridiculous for Equifax and I hope the execs that dumped the stock right after the breach are bent over a rail by the SEC/FTC.

The house doorkey analogy even falls short of what happened. Your house may have already been robbed!

If freezing everything gives each of us our best shot, why isn't it automatic for everybody? Why should we have to call somebody or do anything. Boom. Done.

I don't see a downside other than completely paralyzing global commerce.