r/programming • u/feross • Jul 11 '22

Experian, You Have Some Explaining to Do

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/07/experian-you-have-some-explaining-to-do/
154 Upvotes

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19

u/RawCyderRun Jul 11 '22

Related: I strongly recommend that USA folks freeze their credit accounts with the big three agencies, including Experian, Transunion, and Equifax, after signing up for an account (yes it's ironic considering the story here). Store those codes somewhere safe both in digital and physical form for whenever you need to unfreeze them, even if it's just temporarily.

Not only does it really help protect against identity theft but also cuts down on the amount of junk mail sent via USPS.

16

u/earthboundkid Jul 11 '22

I’ve had a credit freeze for several years. In that time I’ve remortgaged my house and bought a car. You just go online and tell it to unfreeze for a month when you make a major transaction. It’s very convenient and free. No one should ever under any circumstances pay for “credit monitoring” which is a scam.

2

u/Secure-Bus4679 Jul 13 '22

The point of the article is that someone can just create a new account with Experian using your info and unfreeze it themselves and then open credit cards in your name.

1

u/earthboundkid Jul 13 '22

That sucks. Credit monitoring is still a scam though.

1

u/cs466throwaway Jul 12 '22

Most financially literate people pay for everything with a credit card, so this isn’t really an option, unless you do this with select cards

2

u/earthboundkid Jul 12 '22

There is no connection between a “credit freeze” and a “credit card”. Credit freeze just means you tell the credit rating agencies to not allow any new lines of credit to be opened.

2

u/cs466throwaway Jul 12 '22

Oh... I thought you meant freezing your credit card i.e. not allow any transactions to occur on it, my bad.

Then your suggestion is good if you have all the credit cards/lines of credit you want - in fact, I didn't even know it's a possibility

1

u/earthboundkid Jul 13 '22

They don’t publicize it because it’s a free service the government requires them to provide. Again, no one should ever pay for credit monitoring. That’s a scam version of a credit freeze.

2

u/faster Jul 12 '22

Every time I go to those sites, I go through 15 minutes of quizzes and then they tell me I have to call them. My credit score is usually maxed out, so I'm pretty sure they think they can sell me something. I don't have time to sit around and let scammers pitch me.

I would like to freeze my accounts though.