Gary and I each get a free credit report in alternating months from each of the three major companies through the year. That spreads out through the whole year the times we can verify that nothing looks fishy on our credit reports. July is my month, so I was ordering the free report online last night, and the site told me I had to verify my information. This morning I called the phone number given on the website. And boy oh boy, did they need a lot of information to verify my identity. I mean, YES, I want them to make sure I'm me and not give out private information to somebody who's faking to be me. And yet, when you start giving out your name, birthday, address, SocSec number, credit card number, who your mortgage is with and how much, yikesy, you sure do hope that the people you're contacting really are who they say they are. What if some humongo terrible worm or trojan took over the computers at the credit-reporting agencies, and changed the phone number on the website, and there are thieves just compiling all this information from people who call?
You know what? All that safety information on how to avoid phishing and scams can make a person really paranoid!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Yep. Weren't we all indoctrinated in NEVER giving out our SS numbers? And now. . !
ReplyDeleteSincerely,
Alex's Grandma
I don't think any website should ever ask for someone's social security number. It's not just the risk that the site you're on might be compromised - what if your own computer is compromised and you don't realize it? If you have to do it, then I would probably run a full scan of at least your own computer (for malware and such) before entering in those numbers.
ReplyDeleteI'm paranoid when it comes to that, anyway...
(Sorry for the double post. I just wanted to edit one little thing - didn't know it left a note saying I had posted and then removed it.)
I'd run two scans (AVG and Spybot) earlier in the day.
ReplyDeleteDid you get your FICO scores for free as well?
ReplyDeleteI didn't see anything about free FICO scores. When I googled it, I saw some options, but they were through sites that I wasn't sure I wanted to give that much information to.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what our score is, but when we applied for the mortgage, I didn't know whether they'd even give us one -- we use credit so seldom. But apparently it was enough to have a very old credit card that we paid faithfully, with a humongous credit limit that we never get close to using. The banker told us our credit score was very impressive. I'm curious to know what that means, but not curious enough to pay 8 bucks for it. :)