RE: from Gail re: the terrible Equifax data breach

[Flora <http://www.gmail.com/~flora>]

Hi Gail,

I'm a big proponent of putting a credit freeze on your account at each of
the three big credit reporting agencies. By law you can request a free
credit report from each agency once a year. You may want to stagger these
requests.

Unfortunately, there is the potential that our information could be used to
not only open credit in our name, but in other ways.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a federal government agency, is a good
resource. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/features/feature-0014-identity-theft

In my identity theft situation, they had all of my and my husband's
personal information (probably from another breach). They also had a
skimmed version of my debit card. In my case the weakest link was the human
factor. They called my bank and convinced the rep to reset my password and
pin. (Incidentally, I also had a phone password, which the perpetrator
bypassed, too.) The perpetrator reset the pin, so they could start
withdrawing from my bank account.

I now use two factor authentication everwhere and have a cyber token with
my bank, which is used for two factor authentication.

I'm not a propent of credit monitoring, like Life Lock. Instead, be
diligent. If anything is not right, act right away.

Best of luck to you.

Flora