On NPR right now, discussing the Equifax debacle.

[sprinkleeninow]

I am really quite incensed.

I was a victim of two instances of ID theft in a state other than residence. It is a royal butt pain to undo it.
One account I busted their chops so bad, they deleted it from my files without me sending any required proof of who 'I' am. The other one will drop off next year. They bust them off requiring all these docs proving to THEM who you are. I got in their face via phone. I threatened legal action. I am soo careful with personal info. but it seems to not matter. The experts say not if but when it'll happen to all.

This Equifax crap has really put me in orbit.
We're already paying family rate for credit monitoring, but now considering credit freezes. Already have had fraud alerts applied due to ID theft.

Every day. Every day. Y'all know what I'm pointing to ....

[MontanaMama]

1. we did credit freezes

after our ssn's were compromised by the freaking IRS!!! Works well - unless you are applying for credit often. If you aren't, you might give it a try.

[mitch96]

4. That's what I plan on doing

I hear tell it's only $10 and takes a day to enact and redact.. No big deal for me..
m

[sprinkleeninow]

10. The thing is, trusting consumers are always shelling

out for these companies' incompetence.

And I'm being more than charitable using that term to describe them.

[mythology]

15. There are people where $10 each way matters

But even beyond that, I don't agree that people should have to pay to fix a fuck up like this.

Basically every adult in the US just had their personal data stolen because Equifax has amazingly bad security. Being able to access their database from their public website is proof they gave exactly zero fucks about security. Frankly the company needs the business equivalent of the death penalty.

Waiting 5 weeks to announce it and multiple company executives selling substantial amounts of stock (and I'm not sure what would be more stupid if the company's claim that the CFO didn't know is true, or if they are lying about it), their website is running on consumer grade WordPress, and hadn't bothered to get around to properly secure their domain name.

The company should be dissolved and any profits used to pay from protection for consumers. Then the executives should be in jail.

Then we need to create some serious regulations around security for any company in this business. Exposing credit card data is bad, but can be managed with new cards. Who's giving everyone a new social security number?

[sprinkleeninow]

6. Yes, there's the best and last resort solution.

Which is what we're gonna do in a day or so when I get my bearings.
We were kinda bracing for Irma, but thankfully, we didn't get any brunt of it.
Between being distraught for a friend and others in Houston, then getting quite unnerved by FLA, then this garbage re: Equifax.
A bunch of lawyers are jumping in onnit as are
Congresscritters.

I almost did freezes back when. It would've cost at least $90 for three of us. I have a permanent fraud alert on my files. I see that we'll hafta flip out $$ for freezes. Not in the market for any credit apps or mtgs. Just got a new mtg. last year. We got rid of all our revolving credit cards. Husband has one for work related stuff. Have bank cards and always request charge, not debit. Protected by Visa.

What can you do. You cross your T's and dot your I's and you-know-what still happens.

[malaise]

2. Time will show sabotage

by the same thieves who stole the elections

[sprinkleeninow]

7. You just might have something there....

~~Hello, my fellow traveler on our way!
"One Love"~~

[Nitram]

3. Possibly the worst thing about it is that the help site Equifax set up is actually a tool to both

gather more info on people, and a trick to get them to agree to arbitration rather than litigation.

[sprinkleeninow]

8. How does anyone like them apples.

Sour and wormy.

Equifax should pick up the tab for lifetime monitoring for all.

Trustworthy, my Royal Carpathian derierre.

We're not playing along w/ going on their site and getting in deeper doo-doo.

This rubbish takes precious and constructive time away from people. Here's the CEO, "We're sorry". Yeah, you and your entity are 'sorry' alright.

I've been attempting to be more ladylike and grownup lately, and haven't used the term 'reamed by a dried corncob' yet. 😈

[Nitram]

11. I admire your restraint, sprinkle.

[sprinkleeninow]

13. My New England nativity surfaces at times as does my

curmudgeonly characteristic.

Otherwise I yam an easy breezy chick.

Possess diametrically opposed traits. I run hot or cold.
No 'Ms. Inbetween'! 🤗

💗?💪🗽

[MontanaMama]

5. I posted this on another thread

but some of you may find it interesting...I went to the Equifax site and entered my info and got a pop up message that my identity had been breached. I then entered my spouses info and got the same message.i Hmmmmm. After that I entered fake names like Rainbow, Bumblebee and Birdbrain followed by fake SSN numbers and what do you know? All those identifiers were "breached" too. Something smells fishy.

[sprinkleeninow]

9. I did catch this post of yours, was it yesterday?

That's something what you found. And suspicious.

What I came to also. Something's fishy AND stinks to the stratosphere.

Do I appear to be POed? Big time!

[mitch96]

12. what get me is we are not the customer

we are the product.. They sell quality of our credit to others.. We are just like cattle..
They should have the same security as banks and even to the point of doing stress tests like banks...grrrrr
m

[sprinkleeninow]

14. We're their customers paying out $29.95 monthly for

their credit monitoring package.

I'm thinking of all the companies where you are a consumer/customer and they're making profits off of us.
Target comes to mind with their security breach.

My husband had new bankcards issued one year within months of an alert that his card could be compromised and then the new replacement card actually was! $750.00 from some fraud in Poland!

They reap profits making money off our $$ and mortgage and c.c. interest among other products they sell.