Massive data breaches and getting held up twice
August 20, 2024 7:21 PM Subscribe
So there are a lot of data breaches in the news. Apparently our social security numbers, names and addresses have been shared globally.
How can I monitor my credit and otherwise protect myself at this point without signing up for yet another monthly service designed to harvest my fear and anxiety?
You may receive free credit monitoring and access to your credit score through your credit card company, or access to your credit score. Freezing things with the main bureaus is the best/most proactive response, checking in on your credit score or any other info you can get from your credit card company is helpful for peace of mind
posted by I paid money to offer this... insight? at 7:41 PM on August 20
posted by I paid money to offer this... insight? at 7:41 PM on August 20
Forgot that you may have access to free credit monitoring if your data was exposed in another data breach, I got an email within the past few weeks that Ticketmaster would pay for the credit monitoring, although I haven't signed up for it
posted by I paid money to offer this... insight? at 7:45 PM on August 20
posted by I paid money to offer this... insight? at 7:45 PM on August 20
Freeze it. Freeze it good.
The original and still champion advice.
If you have any minors in your immediate family, freeze theirs also. They are preferred targets for identity theft because they typically have squeaky-clean credit.
posted by humbug at 8:03 PM on August 20
The original and still champion advice.
If you have any minors in your immediate family, freeze theirs also. They are preferred targets for identity theft because they typically have squeaky-clean credit.
posted by humbug at 8:03 PM on August 20
Response by poster: I just froze my credit at all three agencies, thanks. I will check my email for free credit monitoring--I think we got it in the past once.
posted by mecran01 at 8:09 PM on August 20 [3 favorites]
posted by mecran01 at 8:09 PM on August 20 [3 favorites]
Honestly, freezing your credit reports will solve 99% of the problem. For an extra layer of security, you can also place a similar freeze on your bank account, which I did after one data breach that impacted me, but I found that that is more hassle than it's worth, because a lot of legitimate businesses validate your checking account when you make online transactions.
Credit in your name can't be opened without a credit check, so with freezes in place, you're as protected as you probably need to be. Don't worry too much about monitoring, even if it's free - if your credit reports are frozen, ain't nobody getting in there, because there's hundreds/thousands of people's reports who aren't, and bad actors aren't gonna waste time trying to unlock yours when they can just move quickly to the next one. If you get monitoring for free, keep an eye on it for a few months, and by then if nothing out of the ordinary appears, you're probably fine.
The nice thing is, all three bureaus have easy ways to temporarily pause freezes for small windows of time if you need to make a major purchase, so you don't have to completely unfreeze/refreeze your credit report. Just don't forget you've frozen your credit reports before attempting to make a major purchase, or your first attempt at said purchase will be rejected, until you pause the freezes.
posted by pdb at 9:01 PM on August 20 [5 favorites]
Credit in your name can't be opened without a credit check, so with freezes in place, you're as protected as you probably need to be. Don't worry too much about monitoring, even if it's free - if your credit reports are frozen, ain't nobody getting in there, because there's hundreds/thousands of people's reports who aren't, and bad actors aren't gonna waste time trying to unlock yours when they can just move quickly to the next one. If you get monitoring for free, keep an eye on it for a few months, and by then if nothing out of the ordinary appears, you're probably fine.
The nice thing is, all three bureaus have easy ways to temporarily pause freezes for small windows of time if you need to make a major purchase, so you don't have to completely unfreeze/refreeze your credit report. Just don't forget you've frozen your credit reports before attempting to make a major purchase, or your first attempt at said purchase will be rejected, until you pause the freezes.
posted by pdb at 9:01 PM on August 20 [5 favorites]
Nthing freezing your credit. I also have mine frozen with the chex systems (the bank-account version of credit reporting). This is different from what pdb mentioned, and worth doing.
Minor correction: You'll only need to unfreeze credit for major purchases that create a new loan or repayment setup, not all major purchases.
And when you do, most places only use one of the reporting services, so ask your vendor or provider which one they use - you likely won't have to unfreeze al three at once. It's pretty simple.
posted by Dashy at 5:10 AM on August 21 [1 favorite]
Minor correction: You'll only need to unfreeze credit for major purchases that create a new loan or repayment setup, not all major purchases.
And when you do, most places only use one of the reporting services, so ask your vendor or provider which one they use - you likely won't have to unfreeze al three at once. It's pretty simple.
posted by Dashy at 5:10 AM on August 21 [1 favorite]
Just to belt-and-suspenders this for anybody else who reads it in the future: the credit bureaux tend to try to push you into temporary locks instead of a more permanent freeze, because they make more money when your credit isn’t frozen. Don’t be fooled, and read the fine print for whatever you’re setting up. If they’re pushing you into something that expires, they’ll tell you somewhere, and there should be a link to the more permanent option somewhere around there. When I froze my credit years ago, they even tried to do the “are you sure?” thing at the end to divert me into a temporary lock. Only I’d already had two temporary locks, and when the first one expired (after I thought I’d renewed it) I found out because I got a rejection letter in the mail for an account somebody tried to open only a day or two after it had expired.
Also at this point you can “unfreeze” your credit for only as long as you expect a new application to take, and have it automatically freeze again in a couple days or a week or whatever. From personal experience you may want to leave it unfrozen for a day or two longer than you’re told should be necessary, as the process sometimes doesn’t go through right away. If your credit freezes again before the request is actually submitted, it’ll fail and you’ll have to do it all over again.
posted by fedward at 7:34 AM on August 21 [4 favorites]
Also at this point you can “unfreeze” your credit for only as long as you expect a new application to take, and have it automatically freeze again in a couple days or a week or whatever. From personal experience you may want to leave it unfrozen for a day or two longer than you’re told should be necessary, as the process sometimes doesn’t go through right away. If your credit freezes again before the request is actually submitted, it’ll fail and you’ll have to do it all over again.
posted by fedward at 7:34 AM on August 21 [4 favorites]
I have 2 different free credit monitoring services in place due to previous breaches paying for them. Neither one reported a thing when I opened a HELOC against my home. Only a freeze can stop activity.
posted by funkaspuck at 7:35 AM on August 21 [6 favorites]
posted by funkaspuck at 7:35 AM on August 21 [6 favorites]
Seconding that you also need to put a fraud alert/freeze on Chex Systems, which is different from the three major credit bureaus. My bank alerted me to this after several fraudulent accounts were opened with my information despite having my credit frozen/fraud alert.
posted by Preserver at 12:41 PM on August 21 [3 favorites]
posted by Preserver at 12:41 PM on August 21 [3 favorites]
Neither one reported a thing
Due to a previous breech, I also have a free credit monitoring service. Does me no good; their emails (which come every few months) say to sign in but it's never anything relevant - instead, it's always about a sex offender moving into the neighborhood somewhere, about which I do not care.
posted by Rash at 12:42 PM on August 21
Due to a previous breech, I also have a free credit monitoring service. Does me no good; their emails (which come every few months) say to sign in but it's never anything relevant - instead, it's always about a sex offender moving into the neighborhood somewhere, about which I do not care.
posted by Rash at 12:42 PM on August 21
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posted by Rash at 7:26 PM on August 20 [4 favorites]