My personal info hacked

[scrabbler1]

I was shopping at REI last fall and got pulled in by the "would you like to save 30% today by signing up for an REI credit card?" spiel. Since I was buying a couple hundred dollars worth of things, I thought..sure - and applied there in the store (bad idea, I know..)

About a week later, I got a nice letter in the mail thanking me for applying but saying that since my credit was frozen that they would not be able to open my account unless I unfroze credit and reapplied.

So, maybe it's different in different cases but at least in this one case it worked the way it was supposed to - even with a store credit card..

This happened to me back in 2015 at Sears. The clerk at the register made the offer but because I had put a freeze on my credit a few years earlier (BCBS/Anthem hack, remember that one?) the attempts got rejected. He tried another way but that failed. I ended up paying the regular price for the one small item, which was fine. But it took me an extra 30 annoying minutes at the register just to buy one lousy item!

A week later, I got a form letter from Sears' credit folks telling me I had been rejected. I called them and found out it was due to the credit freeze. Too bad the clerk didn't think to ask me about it.

Contrast that to a shot time later when I wanted to raise my CC limit. The bank rep at my local knew to ask me if I had frozen my credit before calling the bank's credit department. When I was back home, I dug out the letter I got from the agency they used which had the PIN. I called the bank's credit department and they did a 3-way with the agency. I thawed the credit freeze for a day and got approved right away for the increase.

 

[easysurfer]

As a follow up to my Equifax - What a Joke! post, here's a question:

Has anyone here actually successfully registered and signed into their online myEquifax account?

 

[REWahoo]

Has anyone here actually successfully registered and signed into their online myEquifax account?

Yes, I just did so a few minutes ago.

This thread and all the conversations about the difficulty of logging in to one of the credit bureaus where I froze my credit in 2017 had me concerned. I logged into both my Equifax and Transunion accounts and was able to take off the freeze temporarily with just a couple of clicks. Haven't tried Experian yet.

 

[easysurfer]

Yes, I just did so a few minutes ago.

This thread and all the conversations about the difficulty of logging in to one of the credit bureaus where I froze my credit in 2017 had me concerned. I logged into both my Equifax and Transunion accounts and was able to take off the freeze temporarily with just a couple of clicks. Haven't tried Experian yet.

Equifax must like you more than me.

 

[24601NoMore]

As a follow up to my Equifax - What a Joke! post, here's a question:

Has anyone here actually successfully registered and signed into their online myEquifax account?

Yep. Did it quite a while ago with no issues. Ditto, the other agencies.

 

[easysurfer]

Yep. Did it quite a while ago with no issues. Ditto, the other agencies.

I caved and will provide a letter to equifax with the required documents to prove I am how I am. More specifically, copy of my DL and Soc Sec card.

I'm still not convinced they will remove the restriction once they get my info as they seem like in the stone age. But worth a try .

 

[Sunset]

Equifax's answer to increase their online security is to make their website fail at working properly most of the time.

When setting up the freeze, Equifax was the only site that FAILED to do it, and they had to send me a letter with a pin number, so I could complete the freeze.

I have since unfrozen for 2 days all the sites and it worked fine.

 

[jazz4cash]

Did that ruin your credit rating?

I would think not. Every credit report I’ve ever seen only shows 0-30 days, 30-60 days, etc. so paying within 30 days is the same as paying on time even though the CC may assess a late fee.

Here’s a better explanation from Nerdwallet:

https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/finance/late-bill-payment-reported/

 

[easysurfer]

Equifax's answer to increase their online security is to make their website fail at working properly most of the time.

When setting up the freeze, Equifax was the only site that FAILED to do it, and they had to send me a letter with a pin number, so I could complete the freeze.

I have since unfrozen for 2 days all the sites and it worked fine.

Remember after their big hack they offered that TrustedID service at no charge. Access to their website was so bad that I finally gave up and decided I wouldn't use that if paid to do so .

I've come to the conclusion that credit bureau's are like a form of legalized stalking. If you went spying on a neighbor keeping track of what accounts they open and how good they are at paying back without their permission, you'd probably get arrested. But these places can get away. We can't opt out and say don't follow us around.

 

[audreyh1]

Yes, I just did so a few minutes ago.

This thread and all the conversations about the difficulty of logging in to one of the credit bureaus where I froze my credit in 2017 had me concerned. I logged into both my Equifax and Transunion accounts and was able to take off the freeze temporarily with just a couple of clicks. Haven't tried Experian yet.

I see that Experian asks if you have your freeze PIN, without requiring you to set up an account.https://www.experian.com/ncaconline/removefreeze

But, it does give an option if you forgot your freeze PIN, in fact that is the default. So in that case do they simply have you walk your "knowledge base questions" again? That would be an opportunity for a bad actor to take advantage. If, however, they have you go to snail mail, or use your previously registered email, or something, there would be some protection.

 

[mystang52]

OP here. I've called my credit cards, bank, Vanguard and all sorts of supposed extra levels of protection have been added. In my original post I mentioned that MasterCard. It was a prepaid card, but of course it wasn't funded by me. I suspect this is some sort of back-door attempt to get ore if my personal info.
Lowes is another odd situation. My credit card with them has been hacked twice, both times caught by the card's bank (Synchrony). I've since told them I no longer need that whopping 5% discount and to close my account.
I suspect that the Lowes hack was an inside job. A new employee approves an application on the spot - no credit agency check - and the other miscreant charges up a storm, then that new employee resigns a day later. That's my suspicion, anyway.
Tomorrow I plan to call New Castle DE police, where the attempted Home Depot card application was made. According to Home Depot, the applicant had my driver's license (!).

 

[jim584672]

Last night I got a text that says Fraud Alert with a 800 number and a small transaction in my US Senate FCU account. This seems very fake, so I Google the number and half the people are saying legit and half are saying fake. Then I get an email with links to say the transaction was done by me or not. Again super fishy. The links don't go back to US Senate. Then I get a voice message that sounds like those fake IRS scammer voices, and I am thinking this has got to be a scam. So I log in to my account and send a message asking if this is real. Turns out is was real and they froze my card. Why they did it like this is beyond me, super scammy all the way.

 

[sengsational]

OP here. [snip]Lowes is another odd situation. My credit card with them has been hacked twice, both times caught by the card's bank (Synchrony). I've since told them I no longer need that whopping 5% discount and to close my account.
I suspect that the Lowes hack was an inside job. A new employee approves an application on the spot - no credit agency check - and the other miscreant charges up a storm, then that new employee resigns a day later. That's my suspicion, anyway.

I suspect you don't really have your credit FROZEN on the three big agencies. As mentioned, a "lock" isn't a "freeze". When you get your credit reports, you'll probably see a "hard pull" for the credit card, which means your credit wasn't frozen. You will also see any thaws, temporary or otherwise. If you didn't do the thaw, they compromised your freeze codes somehow, but I kind of doubt that happened.

As a follow up to my Equifax - What a Joke! post, here's a question:

Has anyone here actually successfully registered and signed into their online myEquifax account?

We could fill an entire thread with Equifax incompetence. Suffice to say that what you experienced is nearly identical with my experiences. Although I have an ID on their site, whenever I log in, I get an error. Several times over the span of several years I've done thaws on the phone because the web site doesn't work. They ask me what happens, I tell them, then they fiddle around and finally come back and say they've sent it to their technical team and that I would be getting an email when it's resolved. Crickets. Each. Time. Nothing. I've just resigned myself to calling and not using their web site. When it's their turn to provide my credit report, I mail the form in.

 

[mcbraemer]

OP here. I've called my credit cards, bank, Vanguard and all sorts of supposed extra levels of protection have been added. In my original post I mentioned that MasterCard. It was a prepaid card, but of course it wasn't funded by me. I suspect this is some sort of back-door attempt to get ore if my personal info.
Lowes is another odd situation. My credit card with them has been hacked twice, both times caught by the card's bank (Synchrony). I've since told them I no longer need that whopping 5% discount and to close my account.
I suspect that the Lowes hack was an inside job. A new employee approves an application on the spot - no credit agency check - and the other miscreant charges up a storm, then that new employee resigns a day later. That's my suspicion, anyway.
Tomorrow I plan to call New Castle DE police, where the attempted Home Depot card application was made. According to Home Depot, the applicant had my driver's license (!).

Several years ago I was contacted by DMV by phone asking me to identify myself and tell them my present location (I was at home). Seems a criminal was at a local bank with a driver's license with MY name and SS number on it(back when this info was printed on your DL). The license had HIS photo and address. He was in the bank attempting to open a small business loan in my name! He raised enough suspicion that the manager called motor vehicle and with the bank on the line, DMV called me. The guy was arrested on the spot but I found he had already opened a real estate business in another part of the state in my name, signed up for a cellphone plan and attempted to rent an apartment as "me". I got it unraveled eventually without any financial loss, mostly due to an alert bank employee ( not even my bank!).
My advice is similar to that given above, including you very carefully reading all 3 of your credit reports for clues as to what was done fraudulenky in your name, and following the investigation to try to find out how this happened and who is involved via the police.
I did get my perpetrators name and did enough research on him to learn his criminal past, history and location. Obviously I did not seek him out for confrontation purposes. Good thing because he was an ex boxer with a long criminal record, who would have put a major hurt on me well beyond ID theft.
Good luck, hope the damage to your life is kept to a minimum.

 

[ncbill]

Several years ago I was contacted by DMV by phone asking me to identify myself and tell them my present location (I was at home). Seems a criminal was at a local bank with a driver's license with MY name and SS number on it(back when this info was printed on your DL). The license had HIS photo and address. He was in the bank attempting to open a small business loan in my name! He raised enough suspicion that the manager called motor vehicle and with the bank on the line, DMV called me. The guy was arrested on the spot but I found he had already opened a real estate business in another part of the state in my name, signed up for a cellphone plan and attempted to rent an apartment as "me". I got it unraveled eventually without any financial loss, mostly due to an alert bank employee ( not even my bank!).
My advice is similar to that given above, including you very carefully reading all 3 of your credit reports for clues as to what was done fraudulenky in your name, and following the investigation to try to find out how this happened and who is involved via the police.
I did get my perpetrators name and did enough research on him to learn his criminal past, history and location. Obviously I did not seek him out for confrontation purposes. Good thing because he was an ex boxer with a long criminal record, who would have put a major hurt on me well beyond ID theft.
Good luck, hope the damage to your life is kept to a minimum.

My state finally took issuing authority away from local driver's license agencies...several were selling new licenses using the above technique to habitual DUI offenders.

Now all you can get is a paper temporary license at the local office...all the plastic ones are mailed out from a central office after verification.

 

[mn54]

I was shopping at REI last fall and got pulled in by the "would you like to save 30% today by signing up for an REI credit card?" spiel. Since I was buying a couple hundred dollars worth of things, I thought..sure - and applied there in the store (bad idea, I know..)

About a week later, I got a nice letter in the mail thanking me for applying but saying that since my credit was frozen that they would not be able to open my account unless I unfroze credit and reapplied.

So, maybe it's different in different cases but at least in this one case it worked the way it was supposed to - even with a store credit card..

did you still get the 30% off that day even though you were rejected a week later?

 

[jazz4cash]

My state finally took issuing authority away from local driver's license agencies...several were selling new licenses using the above technique to habitual DUI offenders.



Now all you can get is a paper temporary license at the local office...all the plastic ones are mailed out from a central office after verification.

I don’t follow. Are these “local offices selling licenses “ private companies or branch offices os the state agency?

I just went through the Real ID process to renew my license and can’t imagine permitting some podunk private agency with that authority.

 

[Sunset]

A few years ago, our State agency had a couple of employees selling licenses to people who should not get them. But IL is corrupt, so it was not a surprise.

 

[ncbill]

I don’t follow. Are these “local offices selling licenses “ private companies or branch offices os the state agency?

I just went through the Real ID process to renew my license and can’t imagine permitting some podunk private agency with that authority.

Branches of the state DMV...all licenses used to be issued there.

When I was a kid periodically people would break into those offices and steal the cameras/supplies necessary to making licenses, so I'm surprised the centralization didn't occur sooner.

 

[easysurfer]

I caved and will provide a letter to equifax with the required documents to prove I am how I am. More specifically, copy of my DL and Soc Sec card.

I'm still not convinced they will remove the restriction once they get my info as they seem like in the stone age. But worth a try .

An update ... got a canned letter back from Equifax.

It was just a stonewalling saying they need 2 forms of ID to prove who I am. Examples could be a copy of my SS card and DL. What?? That was what I had sent them. So, then sent a letter back just repeating the requirement .

I'm going to give up on trying to get an online account activated with them. I've read where all Equifax does is stonewall and make people run around in circles. I know a headache when I see one.

Ironically, I bet if I snail mail my request though the annualcreditreport form, I'd get my credit report from Equifax with no problem at all, like in the past. Unless, Equifax's employees have been instructed to stonewall on that also .

 

[John0019]

An update ... got a canned letter back from Equifax.

It was just a stonewalling saying they need 2 forms of ID to prove who I am. Examples could be a copy of my SS card and DL. What?? That was what I had sent them. So, then sent a letter back just repeating the requirement .

I'm going to give up on trying to get an online account activated with them. I've read where all Equifax does is stonewall and make people run around in circles. I know a headache when I see one.

Ironically, I bet if I snail mail my request though the annualcreditreport form, I'd get my credit report from Equifax with no problem at all, like in the past. Unless, Equifax's employees have been instructed to stonewall on that also .

Had a similar type situation with them regarding my date of birth a couple of years ago where they had the day incorrect somehow which was causing some mismatch issues when they were running credit report for a vehicle. Anyway I'm not sure how many phone calls and faxes of info I sent to them to try and get my DOB corrected. Went on for a few months...some governmental actions take less time than this! What a pain in the arse...

 

[easysurfer]

Had a similar type situation with them regarding my date of birth a couple of years ago where they had the day incorrect somehow which was causing some mismatch issues when they were running credit report for a vehicle. Anyway I'm not sure how many phone calls and faxes of info I sent to them to try and get my DOB corrected. Went on for a few months...some governmental actions take less time than this! What a pain in the arse...

Did they finally get your DOB corrected? Or did you finally relent and give up?

 

[sengsational]

Ironically, I bet if I snail mail my request though the annualcreditreport form, I'd get my credit report from Equifax with no problem at all, like in the past. Unless, Equifax's employees have been instructed to stonewall on that also .

Not that it'll do much good, but you can submit a complaint here: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/

I have the snail-mail form all filled out, along with scans of documents, on my computer. One each for me and DW. If I have trouble online, I open the document, print it, bubble-in the agency that didn't work online, and mail it. Takes just a minute. But of course Equifax stonewalls even that. They sent a letter saying they needed me to send copies of those documents...the documents that were ALREADY THERE in the original application.

The last time I did the snail mail one, I bubbled-in just Equifax (the only one that doesn't work online) and ended-up with paper copies from all three agencies covered by this system. So the people managing those paper forms ain't any too great either. This blew-up my staggered pull system, but that's not too big of a deal.

 

[easysurfer]

Not that it'll do much good, but you can submit a complaint here: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/

I have the snail-mail form all filled out, along with scans of documents, on my computer. One each for me and DW. If I have trouble online, I open the document, print it, bubble-in the agency that didn't work online, and mail it. Takes just a minute. But of course Equifax stonewalls even that. They sent a letter saying they needed me to send copies of those documents...the documents that were ALREADY THERE in the original application.

The last time I did the snail mail one, I bubbled-in just Equifax (the only one that doesn't work online) and ended-up with paper copies from all three agencies covered by this system. So the people managing those paper forms ain't any too great either. This blew-up my staggered pull system, but that's not too big of a deal.

Yeah, I know. Equifax stonewalls and sends a letter back saying to send it the documents that are already sent. Pretty lame.

If I recall correctly, with the annualcredit report form, I sent in the request for my credit report from all 3 places and Equifax sent me back a letter asking for more info (DL and SS card). I sent that in then got my credit report. The other two places sent the reports without any stonewalling.

Think I will try again snail mail. If Equifax still stonewalls, I'm just going to put them in my hope I die first list. In other words, not deal with them at all and hope I die before ever having to deal with them.

I actually already got a current report from Experian as signing into their online account, there is an option to get a credit report.

 

[MichaelB]

Yeah, I know. Equifax stonewalls and sends a letter back saying to send it the documents that are already sent. Pretty lame.

If I recall correctly, with the annualcredit report form, I sent in the request for my credit report from all 3 places and Equifax sent me back a letter asking for more info (DL and SS card). I sent that in then got my credit report. The other two places sent the reports without any stonewalling.

Think I will try again snail mail. If Equifax still stonewalls, I'm just going to put them in my hope I die first list. In other words, not deal with them at all and hope I die before ever having to deal with them.

I actually already got a current report from Experian as signing into their online account, there is an option to get a credit report.

Perhaps filing a complaint to your state Attorney General might motivate them.