![]() As the company explained to CNN Money, a credit freeze can only be lifted with a PIN, while a credit lock uses “modern authentication techniques, such as username and passwords and one time passcodes for better user experience.” The Lock & Alert app is available now through the App Store and through Google Play. It may sound redundant, but a lock and a freeze are two different services. Choosing to freeze your credit reports is a useful if imperfect tool for anyone concerned that their accounts or identifying information (social security numbers, birth dates, etc.) might be compromised, but it can prevent would-be identity thieves from opening a line of credit or a loan in your name.Įquifax also is introducing a new credit locking service called Lock & Alert, made available today (and free for life) in app form. Users who freeze their credit report through Equifax also should look into doing so at Experian and TransUnion, the other two major credit bureaus. Still, January 31 is the last day to cash in on free credit monitoring through Equifax’s TrustedID Premier program, assuming you still trust the company that failed to protect the personal data of 143 million users enough to rely on it.Įquifax decided to offer these user services after a massive outcry from consumers and intense criticism from Congress last September. Now, Equifax customers can request a credit freeze through June 30. However, if you click on the link, you could be downloading malicious software on your computer that would allow the crook to hijack your system or record your keystrokes.Today was supposed to be the deadline for Equifax’s free credit freeze offering, but the company has decided to extend the service to consumers for another five months. The email may urge you to click on a link or open a PDF file to check your account or verify a transaction. These use your real data - the type of data compromised in the Equifax breach - to mimic legitimate communication from your bank or broker. Spear-phishing cons are far more sophisticated. Phishing scams are often unsophisticated email and phone cons aimed at getting you to reveal privy data, such as your Social Security number. The data made available through the Equifax breach is also likely to spur a wave of so-called "spear-phishing" scams that could put more than your credit at risk. Spear-phishing to crack your bank and brokerage accounts If you do not get a prompt response from the IRS, call the Identity Protection Specialized Unit at 80 for assistance. You may be forced to file your tax returns on paper in the meantime. Also complete IRS form 14039, the Identity Theft Affidavit. What action should you take? File a police report and a fraud report with the FTC Identity Theft Hotline (87). And take immediate action if you are informed that more than one return was filed in your name that you owe additional tax or that IRS records indicate that you earned more than the amount of wage you reported. If your information was compromised in the data breach, make a point of filing your annual tax return promptly. To put a freeze on your Equifax credit report, select the Freeze option in the left column on your account homepage, and then click the Place a freeze. While the agency has a task force dedicated to these cons, they are complex and difficult to solve, often taking more than four months to investigate, according to the agency. Victims often get the first inkling of a problem when they file their annual tax returns and the IRS notifies them that another return has already been filed and their refund has been claimed. The agency cites data breaches as one of the main ways that con artists get the relevant information to pull off tax identity theft. These scams involve criminals getting victims' names, addresses and Social Security numbers to file fraudulent tax refund claims. The Internal Revenue Service has been fighting tax identity theft for years. Tax identity theft that could rob you of your IRS refund Even if this tool indicates your data was spared, you can sign up for free credit monitoring for a year and Equifax will also waive any costs entailed in freezing your credit report, if you act within the next two months. Information about the Equifax breach, including a simple tool to tell you whether the company believes your data was accessed in the breach, can be found on the company's web site. Of course, if your data wasn't part of the Equifax attack, giving it out over the phone gives you a chance to join your friends and neighbors in having your data exposed on the dark web. Providing information to a new con artist over the phone simply increases the chance that you'll be victimized.
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