Submit Your Claim in the Equifax Breach Settlement • Hacker News Board

Re: Submit Your Claim in the Equifax Breach Settlement

#141

Post by rhizome » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 9:19 PM UTC

saghm wrote: post #133

astura wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not just vanity though, in these two cases "the authority" is the industry as a whole, thus many "authorities." For example: >OptOutPrescreen.com is a joint venture among Equifax Information Services, LLC, Experian Information Solutions, Inc., Innovis Data Solutions, Inc., and TransUnion, LLC (collectively the "Consumer Credit Reporting Companies"). >[annualcreditreport.com] is maintained by Central Source, LLC.…

So why can't Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and TransUnion each set up a subdomain to redirect to this domain? Then they can each direct people to their own subdomain, and people can be more sure that the site they end up on is one that the respective company intends them to.

I feel like the lack of this kind of thinking helps keep people dumb about what a URL looks like, so that phishing links like www.bank-of-america--interestpayments.com/your-account/secure.html keep working. The less people are parsing the few domains they really do interact with, in favor of specialty URLs for every little thing keeps it all confusing.

Re: Submit Your Claim in the Equifax Breach Settlement

#142

Post by harryh » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 9:19 PM UTC

hestipod wrote: post #139

harryh wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to sign a lease with no credit history. At most they'll just ask for a bigger security deposit.

You are ignoring the fact that not everyone's circumstances and opportunities are the same. You keep saying "easy" as if its an objective fact. Saying "I did this thing with these limits so anyone can" is dishonest and the implication meant by that is hostile to others.

Are you trying to say "not everyone has the cash on hand to put down a bigger security deposit?" If that's what you are trying to say, just say it. If that's not what you are trying to say then I don't understand your comment.

Re: Submit Your Claim in the Equifax Breach Settlement

#143

Post by jvanderbot » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 9:21 PM UTC

swalsh wrote: post #69

soulofmischief wrote: post #44

I don't want money. I don't want free service. I don't want any compensation. I want Equifax as a company to be dissolved for incompetency with private data, and I want a way to legally opt out of other such companies collecting and aggregating private data about me.

"I want a way to legally opt out of other such companies collecting and aggregating private data about me." The problem is this also means you will be completely opting out of the credit system. No more morgtgages, no more credit cards, no more car loans. I'm afraid it's kind of a necessary evil.

If you force it to be optional, we will at least introduce choice. A market emerges with those that opt-out. Referral-only credit?

Re: Submit Your Claim in the Equifax Breach Settlement

#144

Post by harryh » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 9:22 PM UTC

ticmasta wrote: post #140

harryh wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy for anyone. Credit cards aren't an essential service necessary for modern life.

>> you can still do all those things without a credit card. It'll just be somewhat more complicated. You certainly can't show up at a hotel and check in without a credit card at any hotel I'd consider stay at You also can't rent a car from a major carrier without someone's credit card securing it

I have personally paid for hotel rooms at incredibly popular major hotel chains using a debit card.

You can also definitely rent a car some some of the major carriers without a credit card. See: https://www.bankrate.com/personal-finance/smart-money/can-yo...

Definitely not all locations all the time (see: "somewhat more complicated").

Re: Submit Your Claim in the Equifax Breach Settlement

#145

Post by hestipod » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 9:23 PM UTC

harryh wrote: post #142

hestipod wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are ignoring the fact that not everyone's circumstances and opportunities are the same. You keep saying "easy" as if its an objective fact. Saying "I did this thing with these limits so anyone can" is dishonest and the implication meant by that is hostile to others.

Are you trying to say "not everyone has the cash on hand to put down a bigger security deposit?" If that's what you are trying to say, just say it. If that's not what you are trying to say then I don't understand your comment.

I am saying that amongst many other things which are self evident. Not everyone has the situation and finances you do. Not everyone has the same buying markets and opportunities you do. Not everyone can exist within their social, family, and work situations with your "truths" and "rules". One can exist without using electricity...doesn't make it comfortable or practical AND it's not an argument for the idea of entering into a third party holding and selling and not securing your info in order to get it.

I don't really understand why you are being defensive of bad practices and policies with the "nobody makes you sign up" argument. I never understand why people defend these things and blame the victims of them.

Re: Submit Your Claim in the Equifax Breach Settlement

#146

Post by ausjke » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 9:24 PM UTC

what's lost? my SSN/name/address/phone? or what? what is exactly lost?

if SSN/birthdate/name is gone, then anyone can fake me online, apply credit card under my name.

am I missing something? what was stolen from me?

so yes I can say I worried for 10+ hours and Equifax will pay me $250 no questions asked, but this is not exactly what I want to have.

Re: Submit Your Claim in the Equifax Breach Settlement

#147

Post by ocdtrekkie » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 9:25 PM UTC

acomjean wrote: post #16

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arguably, your best bet for this kind of test is a very blatantly fake name, like "Zxzxzx". It's entirely possible that there is someone with the last name Smith (since it's very common) who also has those six digits at the end of their SSN.

Good point.. I tried "potter" and I got Not eligible. So either I'm a great last digit guesser (Though I'm usually not lucky in things like gambling....) I'll update my original comment.

It may not be so much a great guess as a statistical likelihood! In 2000, there were over 2.3 million Smiths in the United States: https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/smith-a-short-history-of-ameri... (This number has likely grown roughly alongside our population, so let's use 2000 numbers for this.) In 2000, we had 281 million people in the US, which means 0.8% of Americans have the last name Smith.

If we assume every possible SSN could be handed out, a trailing six digit entry could have anywhere up to 999 possible SSNs, so you're firing out a shotgun with a pretty big number of potential targets each time you guess an SSN.

Re: Submit Your Claim in the Equifax Breach Settlement

#148

Post by harryh » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 9:34 PM UTC

hestipod wrote: post #145

harryh wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you trying to say "not everyone has the cash on hand to put down a bigger security deposit?" If that's what you are trying to say, just say it. If that's not what you are trying to say then I don't understand your comment.

I am saying that amongst many other things which are self evident. Not everyone has the situation and finances you do. Not everyone has the same buying markets and opportunities you do. Not everyone can exist within their social, family, and work situations with your "truths" and "rules". One can exist without using electricity...doesn't make it comfortable or practical AND it's not an argument for the idea of enteri…

many other things which are self evident.

I'm not being defensive. I just honestly do not understand what point you are trying to make. I think that the things that you think are self evident are not self evident to me. Perhaps that is my failing. shrug

Re: Submit Your Claim in the Equifax Breach Settlement

#149

Post by harryh » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 9:35 PM UTC

ticmasta wrote: post #138

harryh wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to sign a lease with no credit history. At most they'll just ask for a bigger security deposit.

This is just false. Lots of real estate organizations require a credit pull as part of your application. You aren't renting from the owner/landlord but from the property manager; there's no notion of just "pay a bigger deposit to make up for your lack of credit history". It's also pretty much impossible to get through modern society without a credit card if you want to do anything crazy like, rent a car or reserve a…

That has not been my experience or the experience of many people that I know. Property managers care about risk. The risk of someone with low/no credit can almost always be mitigated with cash.

I discuss issues with renting cars and hotel rooms in sibling threads.

Re: Submit Your Claim in the Equifax Breach Settlement

#150

Post by jwp23 » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 10:01 PM UTC

devcpp wrote: post #21

jwp23 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment inspired me to take a look. I compared the SSL certificate and the whois information to equifax.com. The settlement site uses a different company for the certificate. The settlement site uses Starfield Technologies vs DigiCert for equifax.com. The settlement site uses GoDaddy for their DNS vs UltraDNS for equifax.com. It's not impossible that a division in the company or a different law firm uses differe…

Why compare it to Equifax? I'd just assume it's an unrelated malicious opportunist. I'd rather compare it to JND to have evidence towards proving that it's legit. Anyway it is legit since it's mentioned on the FTC site.

I made a faulty assumption. As others have pointed out, the settlement site is run by a third party.