Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley announced Wednesday his office joined 43 other attorneys general investigating consumer Atlanta-based credit reporting company Equifax.
In a letter addressed to Equifax attorney Phyllis Sumner, Hawley and attorneys general from 42 other states and the District of Columbia said they had serious concerns about a security breach disclosed by the company Sept. 7. The breach could have compromised the Social Security numbers, addresses and birth dates of at least 143 million people.
In the letter, the attorneys general state concerns Equifax’s free credit-monitoring service for customers and competing fee-based credit monitoring services offered by the company after the disclosure of the breach are designed to confuse consumers.
“We believe continuing to offer consumers a fee-based service in addition to Equifax’s free monitoring services will serve to only confuse consumers who are already struggling to make decisions on how to best protect themselves in the wake of this massive breach,” the letter said. “Selling a fee-based product that competes with Equifax’s own free offer of credit monitoring services to victims of Equifax’s own data breach is unfair.”
Equifax is one of three major credit reporting agencies. The company said criminals gained access to files from May to July by exploiting a weak point in website software.
The attorneys general said they’ve received complaints from consumers who requested a security freeze from the company. In the wake of the breach, Equifax offered customers a security freeze, but the attorneys general said companies like Experian and TransUnion are charging customers for security freezes.
Hawley requested information about the circumstances that led to the breach, what consumer protections the company previously had in place, and why the company waited until Sept. 7 to disclose the breach, according to a news release.
Equifax set up a tool for customers to see if they’ve been affected, which can be reached at equifaxsecurity2017.com/potential-impact/.
The company also made free security freeze services available online at freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo.jsp
Security freezes prevent thieves from using information to open credit cards, mortgages or loans in your name.