{"id":51961,"date":"2018-01-29T14:17:56","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T22:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=51961"},"modified":"2018-01-29T14:17:56","modified_gmt":"2018-01-29T22:17:56","slug":"in-wake-of-equifax-data-breach-all-californians-should-sign-up-for-free-credit-monitoring-by-wednesdays-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=51961","title":{"rendered":"In Wake of Equifax Data Breach, All Californians Should Sign up for Free Credit Monitoring by Wednesday\u2019s Deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sacramento, CA…California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today reminded all Californians that the deadline to sign up for free credit monitoring is\u00a0Wednesday, January 31<\/span><\/span>. In September, Equifax, one of the nation\u2019s three major credit reporting agencies, announced that it had suffered a massive data breach, which affected 145 million Americans and over 15 million Californians. According to Equifax, the breach lasted from mid-May through July, and compromised names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver\u2019s license numbers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>The Equifax data breach left millions of Californians\u2019 personal information vulnerable. While the California Department of Justice continues to aggressively investigate this massive cybersecurity incident, we urge all consumers \u2013 both those who were victims of the breach and those who were not \u2013 to take advantage of the free credit monitoring that is available to them,\u201d\u00a0said Attorney General Becerra<\/b>. \u201cTo enroll in free credit monitoring, Californians should visit\u00a0https:\/\/www.<\/wbr>equifaxsecurity2017.com\/<\/a>. Anyone who experiences trouble signing up is encouraged to immediately\u00a0file a report<\/a>\u00a0with my Office.\u201d<\/p>\n

As required by California law, consumers who were impacted by the Equifax breach are eligible for free credit monitoring. Equifax is also offering this service free of charge to consumers who were not impacted by the data breach. The\u00a0free credit monitoring product<\/a>\u00a0is a one-year subscription that includes credit file monitoring and alerts that report any suspicious activity on your credit report at all three credit bureaus. It also includes Social Security number monitoring, identity theft insurance, a copy of your Equifax credit report, and a free service to lock your credit report at Equifax.<\/p>\n

Consumers are also encouraged to take the following steps to protect their personal information:<\/p>\n

1. Consider placing a \u201cfreeze\u201d on your credit file.
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

A security freeze prevents your information from being shared with potential creditors and is the strongest form of protection. A freeze costs a one-time fee of $10 (but may cost additional fees to lift or renew). You need to request a security freeze from each of the three reporting agencies. Equifax has waived the $10 fee, but the other two companies, TransUnion and Experian, have not. The Attorney General\u2019s Office does not have the authority to require the companies to waive their fees.<\/p>\n

Experian\u2019s credit freeze:\u00a0https:\/\/www.experian.com\/<\/wbr>freeze\/center.html<\/a><\/p>\n

TransUnion\u2019s credit freeze:\u00a0https:\/\/freeze.transunion.com\/<\/wbr>sf\/securityFreeze\/landingPage.<\/wbr>jsp<\/a><\/p>\n

Equifax\u2019s credit freeze:\u00a0https:\/\/www.freeze.equifax.<\/wbr>com\/Freeze\/jsp\/SFF_<\/wbr>PersonalIDInfo.jsp<\/a><\/p>\n

2. Put a fraud alert on your credit file.<\/b><\/p>\n

A fraud alert helps protect you against the possibility of someone opening new credit accounts in your name. A fraud alert lasts 90 days and can be renewed.<\/p>\n

To post a fraud alert on your credit file, you must\u00a0contact\u00a0one of the three major credit reporting agencies below.\u00a0If you contact any one of the three major credit reporting agencies, fraud alerts will be automatically added by the other two agencies as well.<\/p>\n

Experian\u00a01-888-397-3742<\/a>
\nexperian.com\/fraud\/center.html<\/a><\/p>\n

TransUnion\u00a01-800-680-7289<\/a>
\ntransunion.com\/fraud<\/a><\/p>\n

Equifax\u00a01-888-766-0008<\/a>
\nalerts.equifax.com<\/a><\/p>\n

3. Review your credit reports. Look through each one carefully.<\/b><\/p>\n

Check your credit reports\u00a0from Experian, TransUnion, and\u00a0Equifax\u00a0\u2014 for free \u2014 by visiting\u00a0annualcreditreport.<\/wbr>com<\/a>. Accounts or activity that you don\u2019t recognize could indicate identity theft, especially accounts opened recently.<\/p>\n

4. If you find items you don\u2019t understand on your report, call the credit bureau at the number on the report.<\/b><\/p>\n

Credit bureau staff will review your report with you. If the information can\u2019t be explained, then you will need to call the creditors involved and report the crime to your local police or sheriff\u2019s office. See the Identity Theft Victim Checklist:\u00a0www.oag.ca.gov\/<\/wbr>idtheft\/information-sheets.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sacramento, CA…California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today reminded all Californians that the deadline to sign up for free credit monitoring is\u00a0Wednesday, January 31. In September, Equifax, one of the nation\u2019s three major credit reporting agencies, announced that it had suffered a massive data breach, which affected 145 million Americans and over 15 million Californians. According […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,16,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-law-enforcement","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Xavier_Becerra_official_portrait_as_attorney_general_of_California.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}