When there is a breach at some large company or even one of the credit clearinghouses like Equifax, they steal your personal information.
You can get a new credit card, you can get a new phone number, you can even move. But you can’t change your name, you can’t change your Social Security number, and you can’t change your date of birth.
They harvest that information and they hold it for years sometimes not using it for two or three years.
So when a breach occurs and a company contacts you and tells you they’ll pay for you to have “one year of free credit protection”, that’s a scam. Because they know your information won’t surface for two or three years. So when the year is up you’re stuck paying them $20 a month or so for years.
When Equifax lost 50 million people’s worth of identity information, to cover there butt, they offered one free year but they made a fortune collecting it every month for years after that. there are a few services out there that will protect your identity and notify you whenever someone is trying to use your identity to open an account or buy something. A Common one is LifeLock, But there are many. it’s about $100 a year.
Let’s say someone uses your identity to open up a new phone account with Verizon. They use that number to call Argentina for three months and eventually the bill catches up with you and now Verizon wants you to pay a $2000 bill. now you have to prove that you didn’t open that account, or make those calls, and fight with Verizon. You may have to pay the $2000 while you’re waiting for the problem to clear just so they don’t screw up your credit. Imagine how much time you’re going to waste with this problem and the paperwork and loss of money and grief. Pay the $100/year to protect you in advance and sleep like a baby.
If you have kids under 18, they charge $25 per child per year.You couldn’t take the kid home from the hospital when they were born without getting a Social Security number but you probably won’t use it for 15 years so during that time someone will pay somebody in the hospital to get your kids Social Security number, and use it to create a fake identity and use it for years until you finally detect that somethings wrong.
I get a text message from LifeLock 4-5 times a year asking me “are you trying to open an account at Bloomingdale’s? “And there’s a red button “NO”and a green button “YES” in the text. If I didn’t, I hit “NO” and that’s the end of my problem. I never hear back from them again and my credit is intact.
You can get a new credit card, you can get a new phone number, you can even move. But you can’t change your name, you can’t change your Social Security number, and you can’t change your date of birth.
They harvest that information and they hold it for years sometimes not using it for two or three years.
So when a breach occurs and a company contacts you and tells you they’ll pay for you to have “one year of free credit protection”, that’s a scam. Because they know your information won’t surface for two or three years. So when the year is up you’re stuck paying them $20 a month or so for years.
When Equifax lost 50 million people’s worth of identity information, to cover there butt, they offered one free year but they made a fortune collecting it every month for years after that. there are a few services out there that will protect your identity and notify you whenever someone is trying to use your identity to open an account or buy something. A Common one is LifeLock, But there are many. it’s about $100 a year.
Let’s say someone uses your identity to open up a new phone account with Verizon. They use that number to call Argentina for three months and eventually the bill catches up with you and now Verizon wants you to pay a $2000 bill. now you have to prove that you didn’t open that account, or make those calls, and fight with Verizon. You may have to pay the $2000 while you’re waiting for the problem to clear just so they don’t screw up your credit. Imagine how much time you’re going to waste with this problem and the paperwork and loss of money and grief. Pay the $100/year to protect you in advance and sleep like a baby.
If you have kids under 18, they charge $25 per child per year.You couldn’t take the kid home from the hospital when they were born without getting a Social Security number but you probably won’t use it for 15 years so during that time someone will pay somebody in the hospital to get your kids Social Security number, and use it to create a fake identity and use it for years until you finally detect that somethings wrong.
I get a text message from LifeLock 4-5 times a year asking me “are you trying to open an account at Bloomingdale’s? “And there’s a red button “NO”and a green button “YES” in the text. If I didn’t, I hit “NO” and that’s the end of my problem. I never hear back from them again and my credit is intact.
