Sure, if they had your PIN, or could guess it. Plus the other info they’d need (bday, SSN etc)
My D was having issues with the Experian and TU websites when she tried to do a fraud alert.
Equifax said she is probably not at risk. I’m curious if people who supposedly aren’t at risk can sign up for the free year of protection anyway…
@shellfell I read somewhere that you can only do a lock or a freeze not both. The lock wouldn’t work if you had a freeze because you can lift the lock yourself but you need to unlock the freeze with a pin. @anomander I have been thinking this, this is what they should do now:
I went to the bank today to try to put some sort of alert on our accounts and the banker was woefully ignorant of what is going on and had no helpful suggestions as to what to do, smh
^^^ I’m visiting with my parents right now and asked my Dad if he’d frozen their accounts. He said he doesn’t use Equifax so he wouldn’t be affected. I told him that Equifax has his information regardless, and he was in disbelief that they were able to collect all his personal info without his knowledge or consent.
I suspect a lot of at-risk elderly like my parents have no clue what’s happening and won’t be taking any steps to protect themselves. It’s frightening and makes me soooo angry at criminals that prey on people through these methods.
Some humor in all this I guess…
Equifax CEO hired a music major as the company’s chief security officer
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/equifax-ceo-hired-a-music-major-as-the-companys-chief-security-officer-2017-09-15
"Equifax “Chief Security Officer” Susan Mauldin has a bachelor’s degree and a master of fine arts degree in music composition from the University of Georgia. Her LinkedIn professional profile lists no education related to technology or security.
This is the person who was in charge of keeping your personal and financial data safe — and whose apparent failings have put 143 million of us at risk from identity theft and fraud. It was revealed this week that the massive data breach came due to a software vulnerability that was known about, and should have been patched, months earlier."
"The question is how far any of this can take you in this field if you don’t have a formal education in technology. Mauldin’s counterparts at Equifax’s two biggest competitors, TransUnion TRU, -3.41% and Experian EXPN, -0.89% studied computers and science, respectively.
In an interview I found, Mauldin said that in recruiting, “[w]e’re looking for good analysts, whether it’s a data scientist, security analyst, network analyst, IT analyst, or even someone with an auditing degree. … Security can be learned.”
But she also said she focuses college recruitment, understandably, on “universities that have programs in security, cyber security, or IT programs with security specialties.” She did not mention music composition."
I froze my girls credit on the 10th by calling the 800#s. I got the acknowledgment in the mail from TransUnion today. You need soc#, date of birth and address I believe. My Dh has his elderly fathers soc# so we’re going to call and freeze him. He has Alzheimer’s and DH has POA.
Who cares if the woman’s degree is music? She has plenty of work experience in the field. I know plenty of successful in important jobs with degrees in other areas. I do think things can be learned. Plenty of folks work in technology without degrees at all. Not giving Equifax a pass at all but find it silly for the media to focus on the music degree.
Whatever her degree and experience (or lack thereof) she is now out of a job:
http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/15/news/equifax-top-executives-retiring/index.html
I only checked once but Equifax’s site said dh and I both were not impacted. Dh said he didn’t believe it.
I spent part of today signing up for freezes for dh and me at the big 3 (didn’t know about the other two until I just read through this thread). Equifax was the most frustrating as I was told that the freezes couldn’t be fulfilled with multiple tries. Finally succeeded on mine but thought not on dh. I tried just recently and my only options were related to UNfreezing. I know I did not get to a page that said “your account is now frozen” (or however I’ve seen it worded) for dh so now I’m confused. Leads me to believe that one of those tries actually did succeed but I don’t know how to verify.
Thank you to those who mentioned two factor authentication at Schwab (I’ll check that out) and credit monitoring through AAA (our insurance agency). We’ve never been good about monitoring any of these things but, clearly, we’re overdue.
Will also speak with the kids about it.
Depressing and annoying how important this has become.
Naive question but why would someone submit taxes on behalf of someone else? Upthread people were suggesting that they may file their taxes early in, what I interpreted, an attempt to beat some illegitimate person from doing so first.
^@collage1, a fraudster would file in your stead so they can steal your refund. Better to file early and beat them to it :)>-
And I was just on the Schwab site I don’t see that they have 2 step verification, if you find out differently please let me know. Thanks
Was just coming back on to say that I’m reading some of the linked articles and I see that the tax filing issue relates to stealing your refund. Dh hates giving what he calls a “free loan” to the government so, while we try to estimate carefully, we always end up owing a small amount so a refund didn’t occur to me!
Will post if I find out anything differently about Schwab, @SeeksKnowledge .
If I owe money on my taxes, could someone please file earlier for me and pay them? 
Just was on the phone with Fidelity about an unrelated question and while talking, they signed me up for voice recognition biometrics for security purposes. Pros, cons to that system?
I have two-factor auth on schwab. It’s a little device that generates a 6-digit code that changes every 30 seconds. You spend that code to your password when you log in.
I don’t remember how I found it, but I think I searched on schwab.com for “two factor authorization” and tracked it down from there. It requires a phone call I think.
Thanks @notrichenough I sent them an email from my account.
The tax return issue isn’t that someone is stealing your refund, it’s that they are filling a totally bogus return with made-up info, particularly with phony defendants, and generating a large EITC credit.
Then when you file your legit return, the IRS bounces it because a return with your SSNs has already been fined. It’s a mess to straighten out.
This happened to me a few years ago, but the scammers made a mistake- they listed DW’s SSN first instead of mine, and the IRS bounces the phony return. I couldn’t e-file that year, which was a pain.
So I’ve been thinking about this one quite a bit. I’m in a state of watchful paralysis right now for the reasons below (although I just got a copy of all three credit reports and things look fine).
I think the issue is more the Social Security numbers than anything to do with credit cards.
Who DOESN’T have our Social Security numbers? Without thinking too much, people at my credit card companies, dentists, doctors, insurance, banks, etc. I’m sure there’s more. Just the other day I needed to call one of those about something and I needed to tell them my SSN.
I am honestly not sure why this breach is any different than the others. I understand the scope and stupidity of it but how does it differ from the several smaller ones we hear about every year in terms of actual impact? Maybe it IS the sheer breadth of it that makes it more newsworthy.
This whole ordeal ticks me off! Equifax and the other agencies make a ton of money from us basically without our permission then they don’t take the necessary steps to safeguard it?
According to Mediaite,
“Additionally, the recent attack on the agency is already the third serious cybersecurity issue for Equifax since 2015, all of which were under the watch of Mauldin — who was brought on board in 2013 as chief security officer.”
How did she remain on the job? She was fired only after the uproar. She should’ve been fired in July t when they discovered the breach at the latest. Does she know somene powerful higher up?
They knew about the “hole” since March. They had two months to fix it and didn’t.
Beyond freezing,
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/equifax-hack-steps-take-beyond-freezing-credit-185751349.html
I signed up for a credit hold earlier this year and the amount of data I had to provide to prove my identity during the process was pretty impressive. I don’t remember all the details, but it was way beyond SSN and birthday. They have your addresses going back 20+ years, the schools you attended, and a lot more. This is referred to as Personally Identifying Information, or PII.
Now all that detailed, stringent, head-scratching-I-can-barely-remember PII I had to provide in order to verify my info for a credit hold is in the hands of hackers. Every single bit of it. If it was enough to prove my identity to Equifax/Transunion/Experian, it’s enough to prove my identity to anybody, anywhere.
That’s why this is so much more significant than having a credit card hacked, or a bad actor at your doctor’s office.