Hello again! As I mentioned when I wrote that information-packed article on protecting yourself from the possible compromise of your credit report data because of the Equifax data breach (LINK), I am back with some updates that are important enough to grant writing again.
I recently attended a mass webinar for credit unions with tips on how to help members, and consumers at large in the aftermath of this very dangerous compromise of personal data. Over 1300 credit unions from all over the US attended this event, where a lot of information was shared with us. I am sharing with you the extra information that I gathered from this very helpful and informative session.
The Fourth Musketeer
As it turns out, when I gave information last time about how to contact the three credit reporting agencies, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, I was unaware that there is a fourth credit reporting agency, by the name of Innovis.
- Place a credit freeze
- Place a fraud alert.
About those fraud alerts…As it turns out, every now and then credit bureaus work together, and this is the case when it comes to placing a fraud alert on your credit report. You may call any one of the three main CRAs (Experian, Equifax or TransUnion) to place a fraud alert on your report, and ask them to inform the other two agencies, and they will do so by law. What about Innovis? Unfortunately, no, they will not inform Innovis so you will still have to place that one extra call or visit their webpage as listed above.
Protect your children
As it turns out, your child may be affected in the data breach as well. To find out if he/she is, visit the Equifax site provided by that credit bureau to check.
Whether your child’s information was compromised or not. The hosts of last week’s webinar had one very important bit of advice that I would like to share with you.
Because children do not have accounts, it does not mean that data on them is inexistent. And if a fraudster is out to steal your child’s identity, you may not find out until he/she is 18 and decides to request a service or credit of his/her own. By then it will be too late.
So, what can you do? Freeze your children’s credit reports. You will have their PINs, their reports will be completely inaccessible to identity thieves, and when your child turns 18 you can give them the PIN to ‘thaw’ or maintain, as they see fit. Either way, you protected their good names during that time. If you don’t remember how to place a freeze, the information was included in my original blog post.
This will be my last tip for the day. With tax return identity theft on the rise, and there being many months till tax time, many thieves will be set to file fake tax returns using data that was stolen from the Equifax data breach. This is why I strongly urge you, next year, to file your taxes as early as possible. The only way to prevent that fraud from occurring in your name will be if you file before any identity thieves try to do it instead. And I will remind you of this come January 2018!
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