This is why using social security number for everything is ridiculous. Even the Social Security Administration says your social security # should be used for "tax purposes only". But that would be to simple. We use if for credit, we use it for medical, and plenty of other things. Things that should have never been using it.
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Experian Hack Affects Millions of T-Mobile Credit Applicants
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It could be ANY Of 15 million plus customers in that period.
Best to proactively assume you're affected if you applied in the timeframe of 2013 to present and take precautions
It's currently on the homepage of T-Mobile (a little obscure in the bottom-right corner), and of course, since John Legere and T-Mobile are quite active on social media, the information is being disseminated and repeated there by followers. I'm sure it will be on the news, but they should really just text every subscriber and phone number in their system.
Oh, and here is a newly-released, faithful reenactment of Experian failing to protect confidential T-Mobile subscriber information from hackers.
I agree with you. It feels a bit like a protection racket ("pay us the freeze fee, or else we'll give out your data to whoever asks"). If they can't protect our data, the credit bureaus should not be allowed to charge fees when the customer tries to protect themselves. In fact in some states there is no fee (e.g. NJ and SC, if I remember correctly), in others it's $5 or $10.
The initial fee is waived if you can show that you are a victim of ID theft (of course it's too late then). The "unfreeze" fee cannot be waived, as far as I know. Personally I decided it's a small price to pay for the peace of mind, and I rarely apply for credit anyway.
Why's that?
Sorry, I just don't react well to ignorant bullcrap.
Glassed Silver:ios
Experian will be sending out letters to everyone affected by this over the next couple of months.
It's a really ****** situation (I signed up for T-Mobile in 2014) to be in, and Experian isn't doing much to remedy this other than offer two years of protection. This issue is gonna affect people for the rest of their lives...
So T-Mobile is the victim as well as their customers from a company they don't manage and you are glad you left them? Whatever carrier you went to probably doesn't do credit checks eh?
I'm not going to panic as this has happened at multiple retailers, online, through email, phone scams, etc. My mother used my identity when I was 18, the key is to keep your eye on it. Contact Experian and get them to monitor it, I've been told it's free for 2 years. Don't know if that's for all T-Mobile customers or only the ones affected though.
Getting upset and yelling at T-Mobile won't help, Experian is at fault here. Contact them and be proactive. It's horrible this happened but just make sure you contact the company at fault and make sure they do the right thing.
I've got Experian watching mine for free for 2 years, I've also got LifeLock. It's not guaranteed but I can only do what I can and keep my eye on it from here...
Getting upset and yelling at T-Mobile won't help, Experian is at fault here. Contact them and be proactive. It's horrible this happened but just make sure you contact the company at fault and make sure they do the right thing.
I've got Experian watching mine for free for 2 years, I've also got LifeLock. It's not guaranteed but I can only do what I can and keep my eye on it from here...
SSN is not require for medical purposes. Medical Offices may ask you for it but you can be treated without providing it. In the past your SSN was how the insurance company identified you for claims, that has changed. Aside from one office manager who refused to provide treatment without it, unless I paid upfront, I have not provided it for any Dr visit in years. I left the office and went to another Dr where she was adamant about giving my SSN.
Thank you for confirming you were or were not affected. Now hopefully the other 14,999,994 come on here to comment as well.
We get it. You were one of the 15 million.
You do realize that if you applied for credit with T-Mobile within the time-frame specified you are just as affected as the rest of us? Leaving T-Mobile won't change that.
Thank us for giving you a reason to post and contribute your earthshaking useful commentary!
One a message board one posts... Messages
I'd so much rather thieves get ahold of my credit card numbers... which are protect my zero liability fraud protection, and can easily be cancelled and replaced... than my social security number, which I can never change.
My wordpress site has ben hacked successfully twice - both times from the US - so America shouldn't have the internet?
(& Yes, to me - My site is as important as Experians!)
Looks like I will be signing up for this although I already use a similar service. Unfortunately I tested Tmobile several times in the last 2-3 years and they ran my credit each time therefore I would be part of this mess. Now I wonder what this monitoring service is going to do for you if you actually have an issue (i.e. your identity is stolen, etc), are they going to help you address the issue? Or are you going to end up suing them to make them reimburse you for your legal fees in addressing the issue....
I find experian such a useless organization. All they try to do nowadays is sell you their services to make money. When you have an issue that you are trying to resolve with them they are very useless and lots of outsourcing going on which further exposes your information to hacks when there is someone in a third world country with access to your social etc. The US Gov needs to hit them with a huge lawsuit that will be the only way to teach them a lesson and to force them to make changes. I say we all start a petition for a class action suit. At the end of the day we'll get about $5 each, the lawyers will get millions but experian will come out hurting!
-Mike
I find experian such a useless organization. All they try to do nowadays is sell you their services to make money. When you have an issue that you are trying to resolve with them they are very useless and lots of outsourcing going on which further exposes your information to hacks when there is someone in a third world country with access to your social etc. The US Gov needs to hit them with a huge lawsuit that will be the only way to teach them a lesson and to force them to make changes. I say we all start a petition for a class action suit. At the end of the day we'll get about $5 each, the lawyers will get millions but experian will come out hurting!
-Mike
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Hahha, as you know anything popular or that is used by the masses is always at higher risk of being hacked. For example Microsoft junk. Anyway as you know the important thing with wordpress is to keep it always up to date but just as important keep them plugins updated as well, often the hack is done via the wordpress plugins you are using on your site!
-Mike
Yes, I understand that. I just meant that it's one more reason for me to dislike them, therefor affirming my decision to leave them.
Tried signing up for the two years free credit monitoring. When it gets to the two verification questions, it fails. I called the number and they said wait four hours and try again. I try again and it asks the same questions causing it to fail again. One of the questions says that I may have bought a car in June and I didn't. The other lists cities I never lived in. Selecting none, makes it fail.
Happened when I opened a bank account online too.
Happened when I opened a bank account online too.
Yes, very glad. And Verizon does do credit checks. Except for me. I'm the only customer of theirs that doesn't need one.
/s
You're correct. I've realized that after re-reading the article. I just had a high hatred of t-mobile when I posted it.
I would call, ask what they need to establish identity. Then start getting those records. Not trying to scare you but this exact thing was how I discovered my mother was using my identity. I tried to get a free credit report and the address was somewhere I'd never lived, a mortgage of a house in a state I didn't even live in... This could just be an error of data but either way, the sooner you find out/sign up, the better.
This will most likely happen. And even if we delete data from say iCloud Notes, I'm sure the data will still be on the servers.