Whoever is planning a class action lawsuit against Equifax, I want to sign up. Please.
I am among the 143 million consumers affected by the Equifax security breach, in which names, birthdates, addresses, Social Security numbers, and, in some cases, driver’s license numbers were stolen.
Half the adults in this country were affected by this breach — including my wife and me.
Personal data like birthdates are bad enough. But Social Security numbers? If the passwords to our bank accounts were on file with Equifax, they probably would have let thieves make off with those, too.
Since learning about the breach, I have spent hours listening to telephone on-hold music and shelled out money trying to prevent a possible disaster to my identity and credit rating.
And make no mistake about it, Equifax is to blame — first for failing to install a security patch that would have prevented the breach, and second for delaying for two months letting consumers know while it worked out its own defense against the coming legal onslaught. And giving identity thieves plenty of time to work with the stolen data.
Equifax is offering a year’s worth of free identity-theft protection and credit monitoring. Well, sign me up for that! All I need is more of the same for the rest of my life and I’ll have it made. Except, no way, Equifax says: Longer than the free year, you gotta pay.
Anyway, I decided to call Equifax. The automated message promised that a call center was available “every day (including weekends) from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. Eastern time.” So I called at about 5 p.m. Eastern. And got a message saying the call center was closed.
Next day, after still more hours of listening to on-hold messages, I got through to a Real Equifax Person who gave me a date when I could enroll in TrustedID Premier. Whoo!