The Equifax Hack: What's at Risk and What American Consumers Can Do About It

"We need to get to the bottom of this, the murky bottom, the dirty bottom."

- Sen. Chuck Schumer

Want to hold Equifax accountable?

Call 800-401-4530. Join our class action.

143 million. That's the number of Americans who are now at risk of financial fraud due to the Equifax hack.

To make matters worse, Equifax likely knew about its vulnerability to hackers for at least a month - time enough for a few of its leaders to indulge in possible insider trading, but not fix the problem. The Los Angeles Times reports that three executives sold a large number of Equifax shares to employees within Equifax after the hack came to light, internally, but before the hack was disclosed to the public.

The Risks: Financial Fraud, ID Theft

Hackers now have the names, SSNs, birth dates, credit card numbers, etc. of 143 million Americans.

What You Can Do: Take Steps to Protect Yourself

American consumers can take the following steps to protect themselves against fraud:

• Do not rely on Equifax's assurances and offers. One of its earliest responses from Equifax included an offer for premium credit monitoring - but included fine print limiting consumers' rights to sue Equifax later for damages. This means that by accepting Equifax's settlement offer, you may be unintentionally waiving your right to pursue a lawsuit.
• Check your credit reports. Visit AnnualCreditReport.com to get a free report from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. This helps safeguard against fraud and ID theft.
• If your situation calls for it, consider a credit freeze, a.k.a. security freeze. Would-be ID thieves must generally use credit reports to open financial accounts under your name, but a credit freeze may reduce that risk.

Finally, you can also join our class action against Equifax.

Join Our Class Action: Call 800-401-4530

Along with the FTC's investigation and calls by lawmakers for Equifax to redeem itself, out class action also puts pressure on Equifax.

The Los Angeles lawyers of Girardi | Keese have filed a class action against Equifax (view the PDF file), seeking Californians who want to hold the consumer credit reporting agency accountable for its massive and unprecedented privacy breach.

Call 800-401-4530 to speak with a Girardi | Keese attorney and to learn more.

Read more:

• Equifax execs sold shares before the hack was announced - but was it insider trading?
• The pressure is rising on Equifax after FTC confirms investigation and Schumer calls out CEO