Equifax Fraud Alert Letter

pollypenny

Wouldn't it be a good idea to link these two threads on the Equifax data hack?

PlaceboEffect

I have also just had the Equifax letter.

I signed up on Noddle and got my credit report. Everything looked fine except for one thing:

A company name I didn't recognise called Klarna Ab (Cval,Sr, Ar,Sa) / Klarna Ab (SrApi)
carried out a 'Quotation Search' on my credit file a few months ago.

Should I be worried about this, and if so, what should I do?

tenchy

I just got sight of one of these letters - a friend of mine has been contacted. He has no relationship with Equifax and has never even heard of them, yet this letter lists the following items of data that have been stolen:


Name
Date of Birth
Phone Number


So if he hasn't signed up for any Equifax products, what are they doing with his phone number, and where did they get it?


The whole thing is outrageous. Reading this letter made me think these clandestine organisations have no right to exist in a democracy. We should adopt the French model, as mentioned by another poster, SAREGEANTSALT, I think, whereby there's no such thing as a credit reference agency.


I really do hope this nasty little organisation faces some sort of class action lawsuit as a result of this data breach, and that it sees them off.

Typo22

We received the "oops, sorry" letter from Equifax, & after 3 telephone calls wasting 1 hr 15 mins we're precisely nowhere. We agreed to sign up for their offered "Equifax Protect", spent 10 minutes online trying to set this up only to finish with an error message & another (freephone) number to call. As others have said, to protect against damage from them losing info in the first place they want copies of documents with *even more* confidential information.

Am I being cynical, or do they just want to be seen to offer to help, while actually making access to said help so bloomin' difficult that no-one will bother?

To misquote Terry-Thomas, "They're an absolute shower". :mad:

597money

What is funny is this letter says they can offer you services to protect my data.

If they think I am going to give them a list of all my bank account numbers, credit card numbers, driving license number, phone numbers and national insurance number so they can protect them they must think I am barking mad! Just think about why they have sent the letter in the first place.

I am not signing up for anything new from Equifax that may have terms and conditions in them that absolve Equifax from their massive mess up.

What I have done is check the following sites (was already registered with them) and have checked my recent credit searches on all three and nothing suspicious so far.

www.clearscore.com (this uses Equifax data, not sure what relationship they have with Equifax but as I was already a member I checked it anyway)

www.noddle.co.uk (Call Credit - not used by many companies but still needs checking)

MSE Credit Club (Experian - used by many companies - the main competitor to Equifax - not mentioned on the letter no surprise).

Like everyone else is probably thinking why was this data stored in the US anyway. I hope there is going to be compensation due to UK "customers" also as this is unforgivable. The data should have been locked up safely and only accessible by Tom Cruise on an impossible mission.

takman

tenchy wrote: »

I just got sight of one of these letters - a friend of mine has been contacted. He has no relationship with Equifax and has never even heard of them, yet this letter lists the following items of data that have been stolen:


Name
Date of Birth
Phone Number


So if he hasn't signed up for any Equifax products, what are they doing with his phone number, and where did they get it?


The whole thing is outrageous. Reading this letter made me think these clandestine organisations have no right to exist in a democracy. We should adopt the French model, as mentioned by another poster, SAREGEANTSALT, I think, whereby there's no such thing as a credit reference agency.


I really do hope this nasty little organisation faces some sort of class action lawsuit as a result of this data breach, and that it sees them off.

For someone who has been a member of this forum for 10 years with 121 posts you really should know who Equifax are and know why they have data on your friend.

So if you want to be helpful then show them how they can check their reports with the three main CRA's for free.

Also the information that has been stolen isn't exactly confidential. Names and phone numbers have always transitionally been in the phone book and never tread as confidential, plus people seem to have no problem giving their name and phone number out to friends and acquaintances.
DOB isn't really a secret either when most people celebrate it each year and openly tells everyone how old they are, which reveals their DOB.

tenchy

takman wrote: »

For someone who has been a member of this forum for 10 years with 121 posts you really should know who Equifax are and know why they have data on your friend.

So if you want to be helpful then show them how they can check their reports with the three main CRA's for free.

Also the information that has been stolen isn't exactly confidential. Names and phone numbers have always transitionally been in the phone book and never tread as confidential, plus people seem to have no problem giving their name and phone number out to friends and acquaintances.
DOB isn't really a secret either when most people celebrate it each year and openly tells everyone how old they are, which reveals their DOB.

Please read my post a little more carefully. I know who they are, but he had never heard of them, like most people haven't. And the subject of CRAs is not one you tend to talk about in the pub, well not me, anyway.


His phone number is ex-directory, so again I pose the question, how does an organisation with which he has no direct relationship obtain his phone number? My guess is that it's supplied, without his knowledge or agreement, by a lender or similar. Unless of course Equifax has access to ex-directory phone number listings, which wouldn't surprise me in the least.

takman

tenchy wrote: »

Please read my post a little more carefully. I know who they are, but he had never heard of them, like most people haven't. And the subject of CRAs is not one you tend to talk about in the pub, well not me, anyway.


His phone number is ex-directory, so again I pose the question, how does an organisation with which he has no direct relationship obtain his phone number? My guess is that it's supplied, without his knowledge or agreement, by a lender or similar. Unless of course Equifax has access to ex-directory phone number listings, which wouldn't surprise me in the least.

The fact that you have to ask how they got the number shows you don't understand who Equifax is. When you apply for credit and supply your details (including phone number) you agree for those details to be sent to and checked with a CRA. I can guarantee he agreed to it when he has applied for bank accounts or other credit products.

Also if he thought a letter from Equifax was suitable conversation for the pub why would you think telling him who they were wasn't a suitable response, sounds abit ignorant to me to not say who they are when he brought up about the letter.

tenchy

takman wrote: »

The fact that you have to ask how they got the number shows you don't understand who Equifax is. When you apply for credit and supply your details (including phone number) you agree for those details to be sent to and checked with a CRA. I can guarantee he agreed to it when he has applied for bank accounts or other credit products.

Also if he thought a letter from Equifax was suitable conversation for the pub why would you think telling him who they were wasn't a suitable response, sounds abit ignorant to me to not say who they are when he brought up about the letter.

Are you being deliberately slow-witted, or are you like this all the time? To be clear: He didn't know about Equifax. I did. He got a letter. He showed it to me. I told him about Equifax. Now he knows. Forget about the pub if it complicates things.

Nobody'sBusiness

Do I really need to check the 3 credit reference agencies? How long does it take to register with them and will it actually cost me?

I've read somewhere that it might be worth putting a freeze on my credit. I'm unlikely to require credit in the near future. I've never registered with a CRA in the past and I'm not really certain what benefit this would provide. I realise it would show me if someone has taken out credit with my details but I guess I'd be aware of that now - I mean the lenders would be contacting me asking for payment I guess?