Data breach help please

angela2095

Hi, I’ve recently received an email from a company I have a credit agreement with advising me that I have been a victim of a cyber incident. They say my information that was accessed is my name, date of birth, address, telephone number, email address and associated alias. I have changed my password and the company also offered a years free of true identity which I signed up for.
The whole thing has got me worried sick. Is this serious or am I being too emotional?

I would really appreciate any advice.  Thankyou

[Deleted User]

It's very common. Changing your password will have avoided any problems, but do the same anywhere you use the same password.

Troops1

I too have the same email Angela2095 and im worried sick.  

sourcrates

Troops1 said:

I too have the same email Angela2095 and im worried sick.  

About what ?

My data has been stolen twice, to date, nothing untoward has happened.
Anything bought or taken out, with those details would normally have to go to your address, so no payday for the scammer.

MEM62

angela2095 said:

Is this serious or am I being too emotional?

You are being too emotional.  
Think about it, including various institutions, friends family etc etc etc..... how many people already know your name, address, contact details and date of birth - a lot!  Have you had any issues up to now?  No, thought not. 
You have done the right thing to change your passwords.  I would do so for all banking, email and social media accounts etc and think no more of it. 

PRAISETHESUN

As above there's a few things you need to do:
1) Change your passwords, particularly if you re-use the same passwords on multiple sites
2) Turn on 2FA on all your online services that you use that offer this.
3) Consider signing up for a protective CIFAS registration - this will slow down future applications for credit, but should make lenders conduct more checks and prevent others from taking out credit in your name
4) Regularly check your credit files from all 3 CRAs (Experian, Equifax, TransUnion) and look for any new searches/ accounts you don't recognise.

It's unlikely that anything will coem from this - data breaches are just part of life in the digital age unfortunately. But if you take a few steps to protect yourself now, you can mitigate the impact of any future breaches if/when they occur.

zzyzx1221

MEM62 said:

angela2095 said:

Is this serious or am I being too emotional?

You are being too emotional.  
Think about it, including various institutions, friends family etc etc etc..... how many people already know your name, address, contact details and date of birth - a lot!  Have you had any issues up to now?  No, thought not. 
You have done the right thing to change your passwords.  I would do so for all banking, email and social media accounts etc and think no more of it. 

That's not really a fair comparison.

There is a very big difference between people/companies who you choose to give your data to (and where you probably make a judgement call over how likely they are to do something bad with said data) and someone who has specifically sought to get hold of it via a criminal act (where it is highly likely they or whoever they sell it to is looking to profit from it.)

That said I still think the likelihood of being impacted by this is very low, and it's not worth losing sleep over.  Especially as there's little you can do about it anyway.

[Deleted User]

The best emails I see are the ones telling me they have hacked an account for me on a !!!!!! site (which I don't have) and recorded me on my webcam (which my computer doesn't possess) and they will send it to my contacts (which they don't have). All get spam blocked but they do amuse me. Passwords harvested from old facebook games and stuff that are long changed all end up on the same lists

MEM62

zzyzx1221 said:

MEM62 said:

angela2095 said:

Is this serious or am I being too emotional?

You are being too emotional.  
Think about it, including various institutions, friends family etc etc etc..... how many people already know your name, address, contact details and date of birth - a lot!  Have you had any issues up to now?  No, thought not. 
You have done the right thing to change your passwords.  I would do so for all banking, email and social media accounts etc and think no more of it. 

That's not really a fair comparison.

I believe that it is.  

zzyzx1221 said:

MEM62 said:

angela2095 said:

Is this serious or am I being too emotional?

You are being too emotional.  
Think about it, including various institutions, friends family etc etc etc..... how many people already know your name, address, contact details and date of birth - a lot!  Have you had any issues up to now?  No, thought not. 
You have done the right thing to change your passwords.  I would do so for all banking, email and social media accounts etc and think no more of it. 

There is a very big difference between people/companies who you choose to give your data to (and where you probably make a judgement call over how likely they are to do something bad with said data) and someone who has specifically sought to get hold of it via a criminal act (where it is highly likely they or whoever they sell it to is looking to profit from it.)

The professional criminals may well be better resourced but if you trawl through these forums you will note that many cases of such fraud are committed by someone known to the victim.  The risk from friends, family and acquaintances is at least as great, if not more so, as it is from the wider criminal community.       

zzyzx1221

MEM62 said:

zzyzx1221 said:

MEM62 said:

angela2095 said:

Is this serious or am I being too emotional?

You are being too emotional.  
Think about it, including various institutions, friends family etc etc etc..... how many people already know your name, address, contact details and date of birth - a lot!  Have you had any issues up to now?  No, thought not. 
You have done the right thing to change your passwords.  I would do so for all banking, email and social media accounts etc and think no more of it. 

That's not really a fair comparison.

I believe that it is.  

zzyzx1221 said:

MEM62 said:

angela2095 said:

Is this serious or am I being too emotional?

You are being too emotional.  
Think about it, including various institutions, friends family etc etc etc..... how many people already know your name, address, contact details and date of birth - a lot!  Have you had any issues up to now?  No, thought not. 
You have done the right thing to change your passwords.  I would do so for all banking, email and social media accounts etc and think no more of it. 

There is a very big difference between people/companies who you choose to give your data to (and where you probably make a judgement call over how likely they are to do something bad with said data) and someone who has specifically sought to get hold of it via a criminal act (where it is highly likely they or whoever they sell it to is looking to profit from it.)

The professional criminals may well be better resourced but if you trawl through these forums you will note that many cases of such fraud are committed by someone known to the victim.  The risk from friends, family and acquaintances is at least as great, if not more so, as it is from the wider criminal community.       

I'm well aware that is the case with fraud, but the risk of your details being used inappropriately when they have been taken by someone whose only interest in them is to use them inappropriately is significantly higher than the risk when those details have been given to someone whose interest in them is, in the vast majority of cases, going to be to do something, well, appropriate with them.

Generally speaking, yes, all things being equal most people will fall victim to fraud by someone they know.  But I very much doubt that is true when someone has been the victim of a hack and that hack has managed to secure enough data to be used to apply for credit accounts.

Either way, it doesn't matter much.  As I said even under the circumstances the chances of being a victim here are low anyway, and again as I said, there's no point losing sleep over something that is outside of your control and can be resolved relatively easily anyway.