Equifax Webdetect Alert

RG2015

I have just received an email from Equifax as below. I am signed up to Webdetect but do not quite follow what they are telling me and how much I need to do to protect myself.

We're contacting you because WebDetect has located some of your personal information on the internet. We're notifying you so you can review this information and take action if necessary. We found the following information:

• Your Email Address was found

I logged in and was advised that a cyber criminal is selling or trading this email address and potentially my password as well. It further advised that I should change all of my passwords and ask my ISP if any attempts had been made to open new email accounts on my service. Also that I should instigate a passphrase so nobody could phone in and make changes to my account. I have checked on have I been pwned and this came up negative so I do not know where have Equifax obtained their information?

Finally Equifax have shared with me that my email has appeared once with a password commencing with f followed by 39 asterisks. This followed my email address with a number of asterisks that corresponded with the correct missing characters. I do not have any 40 character passwords commencing with f.

Any advice for me will be much appreciated.

[Deleted User]

I wouldn't worry. Everyone gets these kind of alerts - it simply means your email address is floating about on the internet - just like everyone else's.

D3xt3r5L4b

Ignore it. 

And cancel any Equifax subscriptions you’re paying for as your blowing money away. 

RG2015

D3xt3r5L4b said:

Ignore it. 

And cancel any Equifax subscriptions you’re paying for as your blowing money away. 

Got the Equifax subscription free when I was among the millions whose data was compromised 2 or 3 years back. Note the irony there?

But why after 3 years would they send me an alert? Are you saying that Equifax are a complete waste of time? That would be a concern when we cannot opt out of them collecting our data.