Consumer complaint received 2017-09-14
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: IL
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report
Sub-issue: Reporting company used your report improperly

Complaint:
Hello- I am writing you in regards to the recent Equifax hack. I  am very upset and discouraged about the events that has led to the worst hack in US history. My husband and myself were both affected. I feel that the one-year protection plan Equifax is offering is insufficient. Being an XXXX XXXX professional, I know that hacked data is typically sold on the black-market years down the road making a one-year protection plan completely useless. This hack will affect us for the rest of our lives. We will have to continuously be on guard to ensure that no fraudulent accounts are activated using our social security numbers. This also opens us up for tax returns to filed fraudulently so now every year we will have to worry and be on guard. 

This hack is the worst case scenario for most Americans. Unlike all major hacks up to this date, the data stolen from this company, that I never gave my permission to have access to my info, was the most sensitive information that could be used, my social security number. I can not go get a new number, so now I am faced with the constant worry and potential to ruin my credit and have to fight multiple companies to clear my name if it my info is used. The only option I have is to pay money to freeze my credit. That alone is unethical. I never gave permission to any of these companies to have access to my information, yet if I want to freeze my credit I have to pay a fee. 

We should have the option to pick one credit reporting agency that we trust to have access to our data. That way we have some buying power with these agencies. Also, I feel these companies should be ran by the federal government. Why does a non-government agency have access to my sensitive information? If it was a federally ran organization, then better safeguards would have been in play to protect the American people. 

To frame the potential after effects, if you look at the XXXX XXXX hack in 2015, there were claims that user suicides followed the hack. This hack only affected 37 million people and their SSNs were not compromised. 

I feel angry, discouraged, disappointed and now I will forever be in a constant state of worry that my personal info is going to get used and my credit will be ruined. Fraudulent charges on your credit take years to dispute and clean up, potentially preventing me from buying a house, getting student loans for my family, or getting financed for anything at all. This is unacceptable and I look to you, as a leader for the American citizens, to do something to compensate the victims and to change the processes of credit monitoring to prevent a data breach like this from happening again. 

Thank you for your time and appreciate your assistance in getting the victims the help and compensation they need and deserve. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX University XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX  XXXX, IL XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) XXXXXXXXXXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation