Think it should be free for a freeze like for me, my sighted family members used my name to take cards out  while I was in the hospital. I have so many friends who are blind or have another disability who’s family took advantage and used their  credit.  So it is like punishing you twice if they at charging you! Heather

Heather Albright
Blindness is a characteristic, not a handicap!" Dr. Kenneth Jernigan
ham call sign:
kd5cbl
e-mail:
kd5cbl@...

Gene,

I do think we are talking about the samething.  I’m copying and pasting below what exactly I am talking about, and you can let me know if this is what you are talking about. 

Janet

If you’re concerned about identity theft, those reported mega-data breaches, or someone gaining access to your credit report without your permission, you

might consider placing a credit freeze on your report.

list of 7 items

What is a credit freeze?

Does a credit freeze affect my credit score?

Does a credit freeze stop prescreened credit offers?

Can anyone see my credit report if it is frozen?

How do I place a freeze on my credit reports?

How do I lift a freeze?

What’s the difference between a credit freeze and a fraud alert?

What is a credit freeze?

Also known as a security freeze, this tool lets you restrict access to your credit report, which in turn makes it more difficult for

identity thieves

to open new accounts in your name. That’s because most creditors need to see your credit report before they approve a new account. If they can’t see your

file, they may not extend the credit.

Does a credit freeze affect my credit score?

No. A credit freeze does not affect your

credit score.

A credit freeze also does not:

list of 3 items

• prevent you from getting your

free annual credit report

• keep you from opening a new account, applying for a job, renting an apartment, or buying insurance. But if you’re doing any of these, you’ll need to

lift the freeze temporarily, either for a specific time or for a specific party, say, a potential landlord or employer. The cost and lead times to lift

a freeze vary, so it’s best to check with the credit reporting company in advance.

prevent a thief from making charges to your existing accounts. You still need to monitor all bank, credit card and insurance statements for fraudulent

transactions.

Does a credit freeze stop prescreened credit offers?

No. If you want to stop getting

prescreened offers of credit,

call 888-5OPTOUT (888-567-8688) or go

online.

The phone number and website are operated by the nationwide credit reporting companies. You can opt out for five years or permanently. However, some companies

send offers that are not based on prescreening, and your federal opt-out right will not stop those kinds of solicitations.

As you consider opting out, you should know that prescreened offers can provide many benefits, especially if you are in the market for a credit card or

insurance. Prescreened offers can help you learn about what's available, compare costs, and find the best product for your needs. Because you are pre-selected

to receive the offer, you can be turned down only under limited circumstances. The terms of prescreened offers also may be more favorable than those that

are available to the general public. In fact, some credit card or insurance products may be available only through prescreened offers.

Can anyone see my credit report if it is frozen?

Certain entities still will have access to it.

list of 2 items

your report can be released to your existing creditors or to debt collectors acting on their behalf.

government agencies may have access in response to a court or administrative order, a subpoena, or a search warrant.

How do I place a freeze on my credit reports?

Contact each of the nationwide credit reporting companies:

list of 3 items

Equifax

1-800-349-9960

Experian

1-888-397-3742

TransUnion

1-888-909-8872

You'll need to supply your name, address, date of birth, Social Security number and other personal information. Fees vary based on where you live, but

commonly range from $5 to $10.

After receiving your freeze request, each credit reporting company will send you a confirmation letter containing a unique PIN (personal identification

number) or password. Keep the PIN or password in a safe place. You will need it if you choose to lift the freeze.

How do I lift a freeze?

A freeze remains in place until you ask the credit reporting company to temporarily lift it or remove it altogether. A credit reporting company must lift

a freeze no later than three business days after getting your request. The cost to lift a freeze varies by state.

If you opt for a temporary lift because you are applying for credit or a job, and you can find out which credit reporting company the business will contact

for your file, you can save some money by lifting the freeze only at that particular company.

What’s the difference between a credit freeze and a fraud alert?

A credit freeze locks down your credit. A fraud alert allows creditors to get a copy of your credit report as long as they take steps to verify your identity.

For example, if you provide a telephone number, the business must call you to verify whether you are the person making the credit request. Fraud alerts

may be effective at stopping someone from opening new credit accounts in your name, but they may not prevent the misuse of your existing accounts. You

still need to monitor all bank, credit card and insurance statements for fraudulent transactions.

Three types of fraud alerts are available:

list of 3 items

Initial Fraud Alert.

If you're concerned about identity theft, but haven't yet become a victim, this fraud alert will protect your credit from unverified access for at least

90 days. You may want to place a fraud alert on your file if your wallet, Social Security card, or other personal, financial or account information are

lost or stolen.

Extended Fraud Alert.

For victims of identity theft, an extended fraud alert will protect your credit for seven years.

Active Duty Military Alert.

For those in the military who want to protect their credit while deployed, this fraud alert lasts for one year.

To place a fraud alert on your credit reports, contact one of the nationwide credit reporting companies. A fraud alert is free. You must provide proof

of your identity. The company you call must tell the other credit reporting companies; they, in turn, will place an alert on their versions of your report.

From: Gene

To: main@TechTalk.groups.io

Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2017 6:47 PM

Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Article: Equifax - Data Breach Exposed Personal DataOf 143 Million People #article

 

Are you talking about a freeze or a fraud alert?  A freeze must be done with every credit bureau indifidually and there is a charge that every credit bureau charges.  I think it's about twenty dollars per bureau.  A fraud alert, as I recall is free and, based on a message from a list member, if you notify one credit bureau, you can do so by phone, that you want a fraud alert, that bureau will notify the others. 

 

Gene

----- Original Message -----

From: janet gross

Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2017 5:36 PM

To: main@TechTalk.groups.io

Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Article: Equifax - Data Breach Exposed Personal DataOf 143 Million People #article

 

Is there some way I could check to see if the site is working? I just want to put a freeze on my credit. 

Has anyone else been asked for a password?

 

Janet

 

 

From: main@TechTalk.groups.io [mailto:main@TechTalk.groups.io] On Behalf Of Gene
Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2017 5:19 PM
To: main@TechTalk.groups.io
Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Article: Equifax - Data Breach Exposed Personal DataOf 143 Million People #article

 

I can't be sure of this but I think the site stopped working properly this morning. 

 

Gene

----- Original Message -----

From: janet gross

Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2017 4:37 PM

To: main@TechTalk.groups.io

Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Article: Equifax - Data Breach Exposed Personal DataOf 143 Million People #article

 

Hi Everyone,

Wow, what a mess!  This is just plain stupidity on the part of Equifax!  According to Rick Smith Chairman and CEO of Equifax, this all started in May through July, and consumers were not even notified until Sept!  Everytime I attempt to go online to Equifax, I am asked to enter my last name, last 6 digits of my SSN and my password, but I don’t have a password with Equifax and never did.  Any suggestions? I used the Equifax linck Gene had in an email, and I also Googled it, but I still get the exact same message when I go to Equifax’s site.  

Janet

 

 

From: main@TechTalk.groups.io [mailto:main@TechTalk.groups.io] On Behalf Of Gene
Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2017 8:23 AM
To: main@TechTalk.groups.io
Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Article: Equifax - Data Breach Exposed Personal DataOf 143 Million People #article

 

But Equifax had two other breaches in the last year or two and security experts are saying that they should have significantly strengthened their security after the other breaches.  In addition, they knew about the breach since something like July 29 and they waited about five weeks to disclose it.  And, of course, before the disclosure, the president of the company and, I believe, two or three other officials unloaded a lot of stock before its value went down. 

 

also, to get their free protection for a year, which is a completely inadequate length of time, you have to waive your right to sue the company and agree to submit to arbitration. 

 

Of course, there will continue to be security breaches but it appears that Equifax was grossly negligent.

 

Gene

----- Original Message -----

From: Carlos

Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2017 7:35 AM

To: main@TechTalk.groups.io

Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Article: Equifax - Data Breach Exposed Personal DataOf 143 Million People #article

 

LOL you guys are behaving as if they gave away the information
intentionally.  I don't have an opinion one way or the other as to whether
anyone should opt in to their monitoring service, but the fact is these
things  happen.  It is an inherent risk of living in the information age and
no company's security is ever going to be 100% foolproof.  It has happened
before and it will almost certainly happen again.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lenron" <lenron93@...>
To: <main@TechTalk.groups.io>
Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2017 8:24 AM
Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Article: Equifax - Data Breach Exposed Personal
DataOf 143 Million People #article


Right you are Heather, besides why should we trust them to monitor
anything after what they did.

On 9/9/17, heather albright <kd5cbl@...> wrote:
> I thought if you opt in to the free year monitoring, you cant sew them in
> the future. Heather
>
> Heather Albright
> Blindness is a characteristic, not a handicap!" Dr. Kenneth Jernigan
> ham call sign:
> kd5cbl
> e-mail:
> kd5cbl@...
>
> From: Loy
> Sent: Friday, September 8, 2017 7:38 PM
> To: main@TechTalk.groups.io
> Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Article: Equifax - Data Breach Exposed Personal
> DataOf 143 Million People #article
>
> I went on their web site and I froze my credit and they did not charge me.
> Usually there is a fee for this.I plan to do this for the other credit
> bureaus.They gave me a number so if I want to apply for credit I can
> unfreeze by giving them the number. I don't know if the credit monitoring
> they provide is that safe. Clark Howard a consumer person on radio
> suggested that freezing was the best way to go.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Missa
> To: main@TechTalk.groups.io
> Sent: Friday, September 8, 2017 8:14 PM
> Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Article: Equifax - Data Breach Exposed Personal
> Data
> Of 143 Million People #article
>
> I got to the part where it told me whether or not I was affected. I
> just chose not to continue with signing up for what they were
> offering.
>
> On 9/8/17, Gene <gsasner@...> wrote:
>> It's not just for signing up. You have to be verified if you want to see
>> if
>> the site thinks you are affected by the breach. While it's worth
>> checking,
>> at the same time, the site doesn't say you aren't affected. It says that
>> based on the information submitted, it appears you aren't affected or a
>> hedging statement like that.
>>
>> Gene
>> ----- Original Message -----
>>
>> From: Missa
>> Sent: Friday, September 08, 2017 4:58 PM
>> To: main@TechTalk.groups.io
>> Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Article: Equifax - Data Breach Exposed Personal
>> Data
>> Of 143 Million People #article
>>
>>
>> I was able to get through everything, I just stopped at the continue
>> part where it asked you to agree. I'm not too sure about signing up
>> with it to be honest.
>> I'm wondering if maybe it has something to do with cookies? I don't go
>> to many places with chrome--the browser I was using--and all I had to
>> do was check the box. It blipped and said "opening verification" and
>> then went "you are verified" so I didn't do anything beyond check the
>> box.
>>
>> On 9/8/17, Gene <gsasner@...> wrote:
>>> You never know when you will be verified just by checking the box or
>>> when
>>> you will be asked for a challenge. The point of the I Am not a robot
>>> system
>>> is that it can tell the difference between a bot and a human by how the
>>> check box is checked in terms of how a person moves to it with a mouse
>>> and
>>> checks it as opposed to an automated system. Sometimes, from the
>>> keyboard,
>>> it can tell that you are a person and sometimes it can't tell so you get
>>> a
>>> challenge then.
>>>
>>> This is a widely used system and, instead of just giving up and saying
>>> "I
>>> can't get it to work," it would be a good idea to try to solve the
>>> problem
>>> because you never know when you will see the same captcha system again.
>>>
>>> As I asked before with Mike, Gerald, do you have Flash installed? What
>>> browsers did you try? Did you try more than one?
>>>
>>> I saw this system when contacting a local radio station, on the site we
>>> are
>>> discussing today, and I believe on another site about three months ago.
>>> As
>>> I said, this is a very popular system and it is a good idea to try to
>>> figure
>>> out how to make it work.
>>>
>>> Gene
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>
>>>
>>> From: Cristóbal
>>> Sent: Friday, September 08, 2017 4:16 PM
>>> To: main@TechTalk.groups.io
>>> Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Article: Equifax - Data Breach Exposed Personal
>>> Data
>>> Of 143 Million People #article
>>>
>>>
>>> I and others have been able to go through the verification without
>>> issues.
>>> Jaws 18/Firefox 55/Windows 10. Don’t know what to tell you. I didn’t
>>> even
>>> have to deal with the audio challenge. I just check the box that I am
>>> not
>>> a
>>> robot, got verified and proceeded.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> From: main@TechTalk.groups.io [mailto:main@TechTalk.groups.io] On Behalf
>>> Of
>>> Gerald Levy
>>> Sent: Friday, September 8, 2017 1:11 PM
>>> To: main@TechTalk.groups.io
>>> Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Article: Equifax - Data Breach Exposed Personal
>>> Data
>>> Of 143 Million People #article
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Okay, the audio challenge doesn’t work for me, because I tried over and
>>> over
>>> a few times without success, and it apparently doesn’t work for some
>>> other
>>> list members, either. So I called the special security breach hotline
>>> Equifax set up (866-447-7559), but after waiting on hold for 20 minutes,
>>> I
>>> was disconnected. So at this point, there is no way for most blind
>>> consumers to verify whether they have been affected by this massive
>>> security
>>> bbreach.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Gerald
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> From: Gerald Levy
>>>
>>> Sent: Friday, September 08, 2017 2:39 PM
>>>
>>> To: main@TechTalk.groups.io
>>>
>>> Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Article: Equifax - Data Breach Exposed Personal
>>> Data
>>> Of 143 Million People #article
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I was able to activate the audio challenge using Firefox but not IE 11.
>>> But
>>> I tried three different challenges and could not understand the words
>>> in
>>> any of them, which sounded garbled to my ears. Besides, there is no
>>> edit
>>> field to enter the audio challenge results. Bad job by Equifax.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Gerald
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> From: Gene
>>>
>>> Sent: Friday, September 08, 2017 1:52 PM
>>>
>>> To: main@TechTalk.groups.io
>>>
>>> Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Article: Equifax - Data Breach Exposed Personal
>>> Data
>>> Of 143 Million People #article
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> No, something in your browsers configuration is keeping you from hearing
>>> the
>>> challenge. I got an audio challenge within seconds of activating the
>>> button.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> If you have Chrome try using it. If you can hear the challenge in
>>> Chrome
>>> and not in the other browsers, at least you'll know which browser to use
>>> on
>>> such captchas. It's possible this is a Flash issue. Do you have Flash
>>> installed in Internet Explorer and Firefox?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Gene
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>
>>> From: Mike B.
>>>
>>> Sent: Friday, September 08, 2017 12:38 PM
>>>
>>> To: main@TechTalk.groups.io
>>>
>>> Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Article: Equifax - Data Breach Exposed Personal
>>> Data
>>> Of 143 Million People #article
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> After checking the I'm not a robot checkbox I shift + tabbed & pressed
>>> the
>>> get an audio challenge button, but never received an audio challenge. I
>>> tried several times with each browser without success. Maybe the
>>> website
>>> is
>>> just very busy, & can't keep up or something. I'm covered by another
>>> service as well, & was just seeing how the sign up would work.
>>>
>>> Take care. Mike. Go Dodgers!
>>> Sent from my iBarstool.
>>> Arguing with a woman is like reading a software license agreement. In
>>> the
>>> end you have to ignore everything, & click I agree.
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>
>>> From: Gene
>>>
>>> To: main@TechTalk.groups.io
>>>
>>> Sent: Friday, September 08, 2017 10:18 AM
>>>
>>> Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Article: Equifax - Data Breach Exposed Personal
>>> Data
>>> Of 143 Million People #article
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I don't know why you couldn't get it to work. I didn't enroll in their
>>> monitoring service; I'm already enrolled in one, but I checked the part
>>> of
>>> the site that tells me whether I may be affected by the breach. the
>>> wording
>>> in the response was roughly, based on the information submitted, we
>>> believe
>>> you weren't affected. So, they believe, but they aren't making a
>>> definite
>>> statement.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> But as far as the captcha problem is concerned, after you checked the I
>>> am
>>> not a robot checkbox, did you get a message that you were verified or
>>> did
>>> you get an interface that allowed you to get an audio challenge? These
>>> I
>>> am
>>> not a robot captchas are very popular and it would be to your longterm
>>> benefit if we can see why you are having a problem. I don't use the
>>> archaic
>>> and ever increasingly archaic Internet Explorer. I was able to use the
>>> captcha using Firefox and I've used Chrome on the same kind of captcha
>>> on
>>> another site.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Gene
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>
>>> From: Mike B.
>>>
>>> Sent: Friday, September 08, 2017 11:53 AM
>>>
>>> To: main@TechTalk.groups.io
>>>
>>> Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Article: Equifax - Data Breach Exposed Personal
>>> Data
>>> Of 143 Million People #article
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Also, if you go to,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> www.equifaxsecurity2017.com
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> You're supposed to be able to enroll in complimentary identity theft
>>> protection and credit file monitoring for 1 year, but good effing luck!
>>> I
>>> tried with both IE11 & FF52 & couldn't get their audio CAPTCHA option to
>>> work with either browser.
>>>
>>> Take care. Mike. Go Dodgers!
>>> Sent from my iBarstool.
>>> Arguing with a woman is like reading a software license agreement. In
>>> the
>>> end you have to ignore everything, & click I agree.
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>
>>> From: Carlos
>>>
>>> To: main@TechTalk.groups.io
>>>
>>> Sent: Friday, September 08, 2017 7:34 AM
>>>
>>> Subject: [TechTalk] Article: Equifax - Data Breach Exposed Personal Data
>>> Of
>>> 143 Million People #article
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/09/07/549296359/hackers-accessed-the-personal-data-of-143-million-people-equifax-says
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>


--
Lenron Brown
Cell: 985-271-2832
Skype: ron.brown762