Just in case you are living under a rock, 143 million Americans (that’s almost half of the population) just had their Social Security numbers, names, driver’s license and birth dates stolen when Equifax was hacked.
It doesn’t help that Equifax itself has made it confusing and difficult to check to see if you are one of the victims by creating a confusing web page that gives users conflicting information AND a weak PIN, AND is vulnerable to spoofing which would create even more victims.
If you want to know how to NOT handle a data breach, Equifax just wrote the definitive rulebook.
Now, hackers and the scammers are taking full advantage of the situation by calling people and pretending to be Equifax.
The Federal Trade Commission has issued a warning asking people to not interact with anyone calling and claiming to be with Equifax. They aren’t calling you, they don’t do that (neither does Microsoft or Google or any major company) they don’t have the resources and frankly don’t care enough to try.
The scam starts off with something like “This is Equifax calling to verify your account information.” It may be an automated call or a live person.
Do not press one, do not trust your caller ID, do not interact with the call in any way.