Another day, another breach. It’s starting to feel that way.
The latest data breach is of a data aggregator, National Public Data, that offers background check services for businesses and such. This company has information on nearly every adult in the USA, and it was breached. I’m not going to waste your time digging into the details of the breach because that’s not the purpose of this post.
The purpose of this post is to let you know that there is no need to panic as long as you have taken our advice and activated a credit freeze. A credit freeze is your best defense against new credit account fraud. If you are new to this newsletter and want to learn more about a credit freeze you can check out our previous article.
We recommend placing a credit freeze with the following credit bureaus:
We also recommend placing a freeze with ChexSystems, a specialty consumer reporting agency under the FCRA. ChexSystems is often used by banks to screen applicants before opening financial accounts like banking or investment accounts. Basically, accounts that are not credit accounts. To help you better understand which financial institutions use ChexSystems, we advise that you also request your consumer disclosure report.
And, as always, monitor your financial and other important accounts for suspicious activity. The sooner you detect and report it, the faster you’ll recover.
If you have any questions or would like to learn more about our VIP Identity Theft & Fraud Risk Management membership plans schedule a call with us.