Fraud alerts
"If you don't want to lock out all creditors - perhaps you're in the middle of mortgage shopping or refinancing - you can place a 90-day fraud alert on your credit," they added. "This tells potential creditors to verify your identity before issuing credit in your name." A fraud alert is a good idea whether or not you freeze your credit. In this day and age, when hacks are more frequent and more damaging to more people, ongoing monitoring just makes sense.
"The biggest fears of identity theft "center around identity theft on an epic scale. It isn't tough to conjure up worst-case scenarios," said Realtor.com. "Think about it: Bad guys with all of someone's information could, at least theoretically, try to buy a home under that person's name. It's more likely, though, they would use those stolen credit card numbers - or use SSNs to open up new credit cards - and rack up lots of debt in that unsuspecting victim's name. And that damage could make it much harder for someone to qualify for a mortgage or refinance an existing mortgage."
Consumers have largely been turning to ID theft protection company LifeLock, who the Los Angeles Times said could be "one of the big winners from the big data breach suffered by Equifax." Not surprisingly, the firm has upped its advertising outreach in the wake of the breach. The result: "An executive of Symantec, LifeLock's parent company, told Bloomberg that since the Equifax breach was reported, LifeLock's Web traffic has increased sixfold and enrollments per hour are running 10 times ahead of the pre-Equifax era."
But, there's a rub: "Here's what LifeLock isn't advertising so widely: When you buy its protection, you're signing up for credit reporting and monitoring services provided by, yes, Equifax. LifeLock signed a four-year contract with Equifax in December 2015," and the relationship is still active.
If any (or all!) of that makes you queasy, there are alternatives to LifeLock you may want to consider.
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