Consumer complaint received 2017-09-10
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: NY
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:
On Thursday XXXX XXXX XXXX, I saw an article in XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX about how Equifax allowed 143 million accounts to be hacked. I immediately went to the Equifax website to understand what happened. On the website it said you could click on a web link to find out if your information may have been hacked and made available to these criminals. I clicked on that website, it asked for my last name and part of my social security number. I did that but instead of telling me if my information was or was not at risk from this hack, it was enrolling me in some program called XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX. There was no way to see if in fact my information had been stolen. Equifax also had phone numbers listed for its call center which it said was set up for the purpose of addressing this specific security threat. I attempted to call multiple times and it hung up on me each time saying their lines were busy and then I only got a busy singal. I also tried calling several times on XXXX XXXX, XXXX and was unable to speak with anyone. 

To protect myself, I wanted to sign up to get initial 90 fraud alerts from all the credit reporting agencies. I was able to immediately do so on both transunion and experian 's websites on XXXX XXXX, XXXX, but when attempting to put a fraud alert on my account with Equifax their website did not allow me to do so as it kept saying that the link was unavailable. I finally did get through on the website on XXXX XXXX, XXXX to set up a fraud alert but they said I already had a fraud alert on my account. I did NOT put this alert on my account. I am now worried that someone did steal my identity and put a fraud alert via their hacked website and they will be able to respond to alerts rather than I receiving it myself. Unfortunately I have no way to reach Equifax as they are still not responding. 

How can I address this issue? I would like to understand if my information was indeed stolen, if so, what information, and how will this be dealt with from their side. Their response to a hack of 143 million accounts is reprehensible! They seem to have taken over a month to come clean about this incident to the public ( reports indicate they knew of this incident on XXXX XXXX, XXXX ), and when they did finally come clean they announced it with confusing and misleading information with no clear path of action that consumers can take and then closed up their doors, phone and websites. I would also like to know how I can take equifax 's access to my credit history away. It is obvious from this incident that they can not be trusted with sensitive information. 

In addition to all of the above, which is as I mentioned reprehensible, it is also reported that their senior executives sold {$2.00} million of stocks after they knew of the security breach but before it became public XXXX their sale of stock on XXXX XXXX is tracked and available online ). 

I never voluntarily chose to work with Equifax, I never signed any agreement with Equifax. But they have my personal information and are sharing it with criminals! As far as I can see I have no course of action to stop this. Please advise on how I can best address this situation. 

Thank you!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation