Latest News on Equifax Hack [Update]
Credit agency Equifax suffered one of the worst data breaches the world has seen since her classmates stole Harriet Spy’s notebook last week. In hellish consequences, as consumers reckoned with the news that their personal information might have been stolen, the company’s response was insanely opaque. Their attempts to make amends were slow and confusing, their anemic incident website was rarely updated and plagued with technical issues, and their public relations were largely limited to Twitter responses .
While we have tried to tell you what you should do if you get hurt, it won’t do much good if technical issues prevent you from using the Equifax site. Here is the most recent hack info we have. (Keep in mind that Equifax’s answers to the same questions seem to change from time to time, so we’ll update them as often as we get new information.)
The free credit offer is valid until November 21 and until the end of January.
Updated 10/05/17: On September 27, Equifax interim CEO wrote a letter of apology, which was published in the Wall Street Journal, in which he stated that the freeze and thaw and loan monitoring (see below) will be free until the end of January 2018.
You also have until November 21 – the end of January to sign up for free credit monitoring, but you might not want to
Equifax waives its annual fees for Trusted ID Premier, credit file monitoring and identity theft protection services. When the free monitoring was initially announced, everyone was rightly worried about the small print, which said that by subscribing to the service, you agree not to sue Equifax for a violation. Equifax says the fine print has been changed , but Lifehacker’s Christine Wong still discourages credit monitoring :
Think twice before signing up for Equifax’s free credit monitoring. You can do it yourself. Monitor your own credit annually from all three bureaus at Annualcreditreport.com, and there are a number of free tools and services that can also help you keep track of your credit.
If you signed up for credit monitoring and did not receive an email confirming registration
Equifax claims it can take up to 72 hours to receive an email, so take your time.
If you have subscribed to credit monitoring and are afraid that it will be automatically renewed and you will be charged
According to Equifax, or rather @Equifax, the protection lasts for a year, it doesn’t automatically renew and you won’t be charged because they don’t use any payment method when registering.
If you want to install freeze and you have problems with the website
You can try to freeze security on the Equifax website . If the site is down, you can also try calling 1-800-685-1111. If you cannot get through, you can send a request by mail . If you can’t get through the mail, you can try a carrier pigeon or a flag semaphore.
If you are having trouble getting the PIN for freezing
Ron Lieber of the New York Times collected consumer questions about the hack and addressed it to Equifax, the journalistic equivalent of screaming into the void. Finally, he got a few answers, but they mostly consist of “Yes, we know, we are working on this.”
Many people have told Lieber that they can sign up for the freeze online but cannot get their PIN on the Equifax website. If that’s you, try calling Equifax for a PIN – if you’ve registered online, they don’t currently send PINs by US mail. If you register for a freeze via phone or email, on the other hand, you will receive a PIN notification by mail. A PIN is required if you want to temporarily unfreeze your loan, for example if you are applying for a mortgage or a new credit card.
If you have one of these crappy and insecure PINs and want to change it
Initially, the PIN codes that Equifax issued to those who signed up for the loan freeze were not random and could potentially be guessed by thieves. They fixed it now, but they told Lieber that if you have the wrong PIN and want a new one, you need to call 1-866-349-5191.
If by some miracle you received a PIN code and then lost it
If you want to request a new PIN, you must do so by mail. Here is the instruction . (I know I know.)
If you paid to sign up for the Equifax credit freeze after the hack was announced but before Equifax made the freeze free
Equifax will automatically refund the commission to your card. If you paid by check or money order, they are still figuring out how you will be reimbursed.
Updated 10/5/17 5:22 PM ET:
Now you can sign up for a free credit blocker at any time.
The Loan Freeze is very similar to the Loan Freeze, but this is an Equifax-only service that was announced in a letter from Equifax CEO “sorry guys” on September 27th.
Updated 09/15/17 1:44 PM ET:
If someone calls to “verify your Equifax account,” hang up.
Do you have additional information on the Equifax Hack that we should include? Let us know in the comments.