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Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

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Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#441

Post by syshum »

bradleyjg wrote: post #248
Bluestrike2 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, class action suits aren't really about recovering damages for the class members. Or at least, not entirely. That's almost incidental. Rather, they're most often about leveraging a large class of injured parties--whose injuries are usually relatively minor on an individual basis--to force a change of behavior by adding up all of those small injuries. The cost of pursuing each claim individually would usual…

> They may be imperfect, but they're a hell of a lot better than the alternative and have had a profound positive impact on our society. No, it isn't better than the alternative. The alternative is to have regulators selected and overseen by elected officials regulate the behavior of companies. We instead of a system of regulation by self appointed ad hoc lawyer-regulators negotiating settlements they think will get…

Yes because regulation is working out really well

That is why I have plenty of competition for Internet Access and Net Neutrality is vigorously enforced

That is why the FTC routinely issues fines for False Advertisers for all the false claims that are made daily in ads

That is why there are plenty of bankers in jail for crashing the economy in 2007,

Government regulation is grand

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#442

Post by __jal »

reboog711 wrote: post #425
cletus wrote: post #340

Ok, so credit reporting agency collects sensitive personal and financial data on basically every adult American, loses it to a bunch of criminals and now I have to deal with the consequences? I looked into credit freezes yesterday. This is really a total scam. You have to _call_ each of the three agencies and pay a fee ($5 to $10) each time. If you need to unfreeze your report to make a legitimate credit application…

I was able to freeze my credit through on-line forms using instructions here: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/identity_theft Fees vary by state. I think I paid ~$20 total and not all of them charged me.

Oof. I really don't want to give these incompetent losers my credit card number.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#443

Post by StillBored »

HillaryBriss wrote: post #329
samstave wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should a sound approach, then, not be, to incorporate one-self at birth? What if A Person were to be born into a corporation and all transactions made by thhem be the corporations actions - if things go south, dissolve the company. (clearly this is simplistic, but you get the idea) I want to re-form myself into one of these corporations which has little retribution for actions. I shall pledge 10% of SamStave INC LLC…

a one person corporation isn't going to work. you'll need multiple people to serve as officers. that said, the strategy you describe is perhaps workable as a small, close-knit group of reciprocally trustworthy people who leave a sequence of bankrupt corporations in their wake. it could be a sort of financial lobster: a ring-of-trust which occasionally sheds its corporate shell and then immediately grows a new one.

Consider "service" companies and asset sales. The company name/etc can be valued pretty low and sold to another organization while leaving all the unrealized liabilities in a company without any assets to pay for lawsuits...

This seems pretty common with high value items (say pools/AC units/solar installers/etc) providing long warranties. 5 years in, the warranty is worthless because the original company is gone.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#444

Post by conanbatt »

cm2187 wrote: post #331
matthewmcg wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a historical fluke. Credit bureaus trace back to agencies that compiled third-party reports on the creditworthiness of business persons. So long as the information collected is accurate (and not defamatory), this type of activity is protected under the first amendment. See the first segment of this episode of the Backstory podcast for a retelling of how these early agencies worked: http://backstoryradio.org/show…

But then what happens if that information becomes inaccurate? (if your credit report shows credit events that aren't yours as a result of a fraud). Doesn't it become a form of defamation?

John oliver made a segment about this on how a person was denied a rental contract because one of these agencies said he was a terrorist.

Like really, equifax saying "his score is pretty good, but he IS a terrorist". Sometimes correcting those things take months.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#445

Post by badwolf »

flerchin wrote: post #228
lr4444lr wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What headache? Get with Capital One, Chase, Citi, or one of the other big names. They are very professional about replacement cards and zero hassle.

Replacement credit cards are not the issue. Whoever has this data has the complete dataset to open new credit cards in your name, buy a car in your name, get plastic surgery in your name, etc. The hassle will be convincing all those companies that you do not in fact owe them thousands, and there is no automatic protections for these types of harms.

Even worse, is if you don't immediately notice a new account on your credit report, that then goes to collections. -_- 10 years later and I still get threatening calls from the shadiest of shady "collection agencies"

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#446

Post by mjhoyer »

devhead wrote: post #383
kcon wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe it depends on your state. I'm in California and I had to pay $10 for freezing on Experian and TransUnion, although it was free for Equifax.

i filled out the experian form online for free: https://www.experian.com/fraud/center.html#content-01

Experian freeze is here: https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#447

Post by __jal »

syshum wrote: post #441
bradleyjg wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They may be imperfect, but they're a hell of a lot better than the alternative and have had a profound positive impact on our society. No, it isn't better than the alternative. The alternative is to have regulators selected and overseen by elected officials regulate the behavior of companies. We instead of a system of regulation by self appointed ad hoc lawyer-regulators negotiating settlements they think will get…

Yes because regulation is working out really well That is why I have plenty of competition for Internet Access and Net Neutrality is vigorously enforced That is why the FTC routinely issues fines for False Advertisers for all the false claims that are made daily in ads That is why there are plenty of bankers in jail for crashing the economy in 2007, Government regulation is grand

So vote for people who actually want to competently regulate, and work to encourage others to do the same.

Paraphrasing, we are currently getting the regulation we deserve - good and hard.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#449

Post by ddoolin »

__jal wrote: post #442
reboog711 wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was able to freeze my credit through on-line forms using instructions here: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/identity_theft Fees vary by state. I think I paid ~$20 total and not all of them charged me.

Oof. I really don't want to give these incompetent losers my credit card number.

Seconded. _Really_ do not want to give them my money, as it they've earned it. This is their screw up.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#450

Post by mgleason_3 »

wildmusings wrote: post #408
CoolGuySteve wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Corporate charters can be dissolved by the government at any time. Given Equifax ONLY deals in building detailed profiles of every US adult and managed to lose that information to criminals is grounds for terminating their corporation. At this point, their lack of basic security practices has endangered national security by weakening the banking and credit systems. On top of that, this company is massively unpopular.…

The government can't just dissolve a corporation on a whim. We have due process and the rule of law.

What I can't believe is why there's not a criminal case against these idiots? When you are controlling something dangerous and you allow that thing to harm someone else, it's a criminal offense. It's not a matter of whether it's hard. It's simply your responsibility to ensure no one gets hurt. This company has already caused harm to literally everyone in the US. Minimally, we all now have to take action to attempt to avoid identity theft. And it only gets worse from here. And these bastards have the chutzpah to wait until hurricane Irma is upon us to make the announcement.
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