Equifax Breach Update

Philadelphia Federal Credit Union (PFCU) wants to help our members navigate the Equifax breach. Although this breach was not related in any way to PFCU, our commitment is to helping you, our members. We have compiled a summary, as well as links and resources to help you learn more and take action to protect your identity and personal information.

Equifax: Next Steps

Like many consumers, you are concerned that your private information was exposed and we understand. We recommend that all of our members visit the Equifax website to see if your personal information may have been compromised and to take advantage of the free credit monitoring service Equifax is providing all consumers.

Find Out If You Were Impacted

Visit equifaxsecurity2017.com and click on the “Am I Impacted?” tab. Enter your last name and the last six digits of your Social Security Number. You will receive an immediate response as to whether you were impacted or not and will be given the opportunity to enroll in TrustedID.

Enroll in Credit Monitoring

Equifax is providing one year of free credit monitoring protection through TrustedID for all consumers, even those not affected by the breach. After checking your potential impact, you will be given an enrollment date to return and sign up for the free service. TrustedID allows you to monitor your credit. It also provides identity-theft insurance and internet scanning of your Social Security Number. If you enroll in the program, you may want to read the terms and conditions closely or seek advice from an attorney. Please be aware that there is generally a fee and there are other monitoring protection services available.

Equifax has also set up a dedicated call center at 866-447-7559 where you can speak to someone regarding any questions you may have about the breach.

Additional Resources

We have provided some additional resources below to help safeguard your personal information.

• Access your current credit report
• Set up fraud alerts
• Place a freeze on your credit
• Learn more about protecting yourself
• Monitor your existing credit card and bank accounts closely for charges you don’t recognize. Accounts or activity that you don’t recognize could indicate identity theft.
• File your taxes early —as soon as you have the tax information you need, before a scammer can. Tax identity theft happens when someone uses your Social Security Number to get a tax refund or a job. Respond right away to letters from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) —and be wary of email or phone calls from individuals indicating they represent the IRS (these are usually scams).

Government Action

Despite the span of the breach, Equifax remains an integral part of the credit reporting process. Thousands of credit unions, banks and other financial services companies rely on them to evaluate requests for products ranging from credit card to loans. The vast majority of financial services companies, utilities, phone companies and related companies send data needed for credit reporting process to agencies, such as Equifax, TransUnion and Experian, regularly.

You have our commitment that PFCU will be working with industry experts to push our government officials to require Equifax, and other reporting agencies, to place even greater protections on your data.