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It's still easy for anyone to become you at Experian

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Re: It's still easy for anyone to become you at Experian

#201

Post by judge2020 »

ryandrake wrote: post #199
dllthomas wrote: post #197

In most contexts, providing false information about someone in a way that harms them is slander or libel. I think we need to revisit whether credit reporting deserves to be exempted from that, and under what circumstances.

Absolutely. We should be able to successfully sue credit rating agencies for monetary damages if they tell a lender false information about us and it causes us to not get a loan or have a higher rate than is warranted. It should not matter whether they know it’s false. The harm happens regardless of whether they were negligent or malicious.

This sets a dangerous precedent. If you won, it would apply to all defamation/libel/slander cases, not just credit reporting agencies. News agencies could be sued for saying anything about someone if it later turned out to be false. Defamation laws are already on the brink of unconstitutionality.

Re: It's still easy for anyone to become you at Experian

#202

Post by benlivengood »

albroland wrote: post #136
benlivengood wrote: post #129

The best outcome is to have minor fraud (someone tried and failed to open an account in your name, or your name+address appears in a data dump somewhere) occur because then you can register a fraud alert and credit freeze in all the agencies which stops a lot of nonsense (random junk mail, risk of actual fraudulent accounts getting established) for a year or so by enforcing extra authentication steps. I wish I could…

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve signed up for all 3 bureaus and enabled the credit freeze. My understanding, and experience years later, is that it is still frozen. I had to unfreeze a specific one last year for an auto loan. Is there something else I’m missing that’s only temporary?

The fraud alert adds a requirement that potential lenders call a phone number added to the credit file to authorize new loans/accounts, making it significantly less likely that fraud can take place.

Re: It's still easy for anyone to become you at Experian

#203

Post by drsnow »

saagarjha wrote: post #133
tmcz26 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Well I am from the fraud remuneration department of Brazil and know the person who pays out compensation for these crimes. Simply send me all your personal information and credit card details and I’ll make sure you get your appropriate payout.

What is your email sir

Re: It's still easy for anyone to become you at Experian

#204

Post by AdamJacobMuller »

crazypyro wrote: post #190
namrog84 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did this earlier this year. Its super easy to do. And recently had to temporarily unfreeze everything to open an account. Also very easy. All free. 1 of them tries to upsell hard but can do all for free. I think a law passed in 2019 ish forcing it to be free.

The one that tries to upsell hard is so annoying, I can't be arsed to go find it right now, but the other two make it so easy, yet the one that tries to upsell, its like every other click takes you to a "input your credit card" screen.... Seriously annoying. Just had to deal with this for the first time in the last two weeks when someone tried to open a fraudulent account in my name... Interestingly, this happens for…

Its experian.

Re: It's still easy for anyone to become you at Experian

#205

Post by diyseguy »

itissid wrote: post #159

FWIW 1. Freeze all your credit with experian, equifax and transunion 2. Opt out of them selling your info: https://consumerprivacy.experian.com/ https://myprivacy.equifax.com/opt-in-opt-out/personal-info https://service.transunion.com/dss/ccpa_optout.page

Just tried this for equifax got this message. I live in Washington state.

We've encountered an error Sorry, this service is not currently offered to residents of your state. If you need further assistance, you can call Consumer Care at 1-866-295-6801 during our regular business hours 9 A.M. to 9 P.M. ET Monday to Friday, and 9 A.M. to 6 P.M. ET Saturday and Sunday except holidays.

Re: It's still easy for anyone to become you at Experian

#206

Post by squeegmeister »

rwestergren wrote: post #178
itissid wrote: post #159

FWIW 1. Freeze all your credit with experian, equifax and transunion 2. Opt out of them selling your info: https://consumerprivacy.experian.com/ https://myprivacy.equifax.com/opt-in-opt-out/personal-info https://service.transunion.com/dss/ccpa_optout.page

Experian allows unfreezing via their site in the article. If someone can easily recreate your account, they can unfreeze it which makes it pretty useless.

Exactly

Re: It's still easy for anyone to become you at Experian

#207

Post by cute_boi »

firtoz wrote: post #196
eh_why_not wrote: post #132

Maybe naive question: if you never create an account on any of the credit bureau websites, would you be less likely to be an identity theft subject?

You have a hidden credit record anyway, AFAIK. But I'm no expert.

I think as long as they can get name and date of birth they will have credit report.

Re: It's still easy for anyone to become you at Experian

#208

Post by bradley13 »

Stepping back, and looking at the situation as a whole: the real problem is a lack of privacy laws. Banks, businesses and employers should be prohibited from sharing your personal information with third parties.

I live in Switzerland, where this is the case. Even the government doesn't get this information. If the government thinks you're cheating on your taxes, they have to use warrants and follow the same procedures as for any other crime.

The only financial records accessible are records of legal debt collection actions ("Betreibungen"). Before offering someone credit, you can find out if other people had to sue them to collect.

Yet, even with so little information - without credit reporting agencies - everything works just fine.

FWIW, due to international pressure (things like FATCA), Swiss law was changed so that banks do report on international customers.

Re: It's still easy for anyone to become you at Experian

#209

Post by namdnay »

bradley13 wrote: post #208

Stepping back, and looking at the situation as a whole: the real problem is a lack of privacy laws. Banks, businesses and employers should be prohibited from sharing your personal information with third parties. I live in Switzerland, where this is the case. Even the government doesn't get this information. If the government thinks you're cheating on your taxes, they have to use warrants and follow the same procedure…

“Everything works just fine”

It definitely worked great for a lot of dictators, tax cheats and the sort… I think Switzerland is a great example of why complete privacy isn’t fair on ordinary taxpayers - it allows the ultra-rich to hide what they owe

Re: It's still easy for anyone to become you at Experian

#210

Post by ClimaxGravely »

rzzzt wrote: post #20
bee_rider wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s no such thing as identity theft, it is impossible to steal an identity, the person still has their identity. It is impersonation. The victim is the entity that has fallen for the impersonation (likely a bank, etc), the perpetrator is the one who did the impersonation, and the impersonated person is just some uninvolved third party. I know it is pedantic but it is important to keep in mind because dumping the…

A classic Mitchell & Webb sketch: https://youtu.be/-c57WKxeELY

Thank you for that, I'm actively looking to see how I can watch this show now.
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