They’re terrified a mass credit freeze will crush revenues.
So a day or two ago, Equifax changed its page for initiating a “security freeze” to make it a lot harder for consumers to get a security freeze (aka credit freeze).
Credit bureaus are required to offer a security freeze. But they’re not required to make it easy. Credit bureaus sell consumer data to other companies. When you try to open an account at a bank or credit card company, that company will check your credit worthiness via the data obtained from credit bureaus. If someone obtains your data that was stolen from Equifax, he can open an account in your name and borrow money in your name, and you get to fend off the creditors when they chase after their money, and your credit will be ruined too.
Identity theft is a nightmare to resolve. The best prevention is putting a security freeze at the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian.
A credit freeze makes this form of identity theft nearly impossible because banks and credit card companies that cannot verify the applicant’s credit history will not open a new account. And since your stolen data will be out there forever, you need to protect yourself for the rest of your life.
But to make it even harder to obtain a security freeze, Equifax put a huge distracting red button on the top center of the security-freeze page. It takes you to a page full of other stuff where a security freeze is mentioned only at the bottom, but without link.
This is what the devious button looks like that you do not want to click:
Instead, scroll past the devious red button. Now the security-freeze section appears that used to be at the top. And it provides the appropriate link. But most people will never see it because they were deceived by the devious red button.
Under withering pressure and allegations of profiteering from its victims’ plight, Equifax announced that credit freezes will be free until November 21, and that consumers who paid for it starting at 5pm EST on September 7 will receive a refund.
TransUnion has become even more devious in trying to prevent consumers from initiating a security freeze and denting its revenues. Its old credit-freeze page that I’d linked in my September 7 article — and that subsequently major media outlets and State Attorneys General linked in their communications – was changed a couple of days ago.
Now that page goes through all kinds of blah-blah-blah. You have to scroll all the way down to get to the very last paragraph to find the first mention of a “credit freeze” and the new link where you can initiate the credit freeze. But even on that “credit-freeze2” page, TransUnion is trying to talk you into a “security lock” instead.
Experian has not yet changed its security freeze page.
This deviousness is a sign these companies are terrified that a mass credit freeze will hit their revenues and shares. And this isn’t a short-term blip. This is for life.
Banks, credit card companies, and other Equifax customers squeal. Consumers (the product) squeal. Congress squeals. Investors squeal. Read… The Crushing of Equifax