During the game Saturday, I got a text from my credit card that my SSN had appeared on a dark web search. Got home and checked my credit report (annualcredit report.com) on all 3 credit sites, and nothing suspicious shows up.
Then the part I’m trying to figure out.
Several years ago I got a free year subscription to Experian when one of my charge cards database got hacked. I don’t remember setting anything up, other than opting to accept the service when it was offered. The year went out and they started charging a monthly fee. I went online a couple of times to see about cancelling, but could never log in and just said I’ll deal with it later. So today was later.
After trying to log in with every username password combination I could, nothing worked. When I went to reset my user name on the experian site, It said it had sent the info to a *.yahoo email that I wasn’t familiar with. Finally decided to call experian. First they wanted the phone number that I set the account up with. Tried every number I’ve ever had with no luck. Then she wanted the email I used to set it up. Again, tried every old email I could remember with no luck. Similar with username and security questions. After running through several questions about places I had lived and cars I’d had, etc., they finally let me in and allowed me to change password, username, etc. I’ve now frozen and locked my credit reports for the time being.
So the question. At one time or another during this I could see bits of the email, phone number, and username the experian account was setup under. Enough to know that none of them match anything I would have used. Would the company who set up the free year have used an email and username they setup, along with their phone number? Trying to figure out if I’m in the clear yet or still have some digging to do.
How do you get your info off the dark web once it gets there? Too late?
Then the part I’m trying to figure out.
Several years ago I got a free year subscription to Experian when one of my charge cards database got hacked. I don’t remember setting anything up, other than opting to accept the service when it was offered. The year went out and they started charging a monthly fee. I went online a couple of times to see about cancelling, but could never log in and just said I’ll deal with it later. So today was later.
After trying to log in with every username password combination I could, nothing worked. When I went to reset my user name on the experian site, It said it had sent the info to a *.yahoo email that I wasn’t familiar with. Finally decided to call experian. First they wanted the phone number that I set the account up with. Tried every number I’ve ever had with no luck. Then she wanted the email I used to set it up. Again, tried every old email I could remember with no luck. Similar with username and security questions. After running through several questions about places I had lived and cars I’d had, etc., they finally let me in and allowed me to change password, username, etc. I’ve now frozen and locked my credit reports for the time being.
So the question. At one time or another during this I could see bits of the email, phone number, and username the experian account was setup under. Enough to know that none of them match anything I would have used. Would the company who set up the free year have used an email and username they setup, along with their phone number? Trying to figure out if I’m in the clear yet or still have some digging to do.
How do you get your info off the dark web once it gets there? Too late?
