This is a special notice from the La Crosse County UW-Extension office about the Equifax data breach.

• Equifax has posted information about the data breach and the one-year free credit monitoring at: www.equifaxsecurity2017.com
• The Federal Trade Commission provides additional background information and links to relevant websites at: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2017/09/equifax-data-breach-what-do?utm_source=govdelivery.  According to the FTC:  “The arbitration clause and class action waiver included in the TrustedID Premier Terms of Use applies to the free credit file monitoring and identity theft protection products, and not the cybersecurity incident.”  This means that if the free monitoring fails to notice that someone fraudulently opens up a new line of credit under your name, you cannot sue the monitoring service but you can go to arbitration. Consumers still have the right to sue or join a lawsuit regarding the data breach.
• You can find additional resources about placing a 90-day fraud alert or a credit freeze on your own credit report on our UW-Extension website: https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/creditreport/fixing_errors/freezes_fraud/

No one will pay attention to your own credit report like you will.  For more information about getting or reading your free report, check out the UW-Extension website https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/creditreport. Stay tuned for our October 10^th friendly reminder.

Please feel free to share this email with your family and friends!

Sincerely,

Mary Meehan-Strub
Professor, Department of Family Development
Director/Family Living Agent
La Crosse County UW-Extension