It started five years ago, with a mysterious package that arrived at my front door. A box about yay square. It had my name in the “Deliver to:” space.
[Odd Thing #1: The box is from the Galaxy telephone company and I have an iPhone.]
I am wondering if I have been the lucky recipient of a shipping error, or maybe this is a promotional stunt. I may have just scored something. Inside the box is a pair of Galaxy ear buds. I wonder if they work with my phone?
[Odd Thing #2: There is also a credit card receipt for a card I don’t recognize.]
Not my card. Somebody must have messed up. Not my problem?
The ear buds work with my phone, although their quality is terrible. Still, usable for making phone calls. Just to be sure, I look at my credit card account online, to see if these buds have been charged to my card. They have not. My email account chimes its delivery announcement, and I tap over to that window. There is an email confirming receipt of my credit card information to pay for an extended warranty on a kitchen appliance that I’m pretty sure I didn’t buy.
[Odd thing #3: The receipt is charged to the same mystery credit card that apparently has my name on it.]
I quickly click over to my Equifax account to check my credit and discover that someone has opened at least one credit card account using my real identity. They might have my social security number. They might know my driver’s license number. They might know my the account numbers. I don’t know what they know and how much they have. But, they’re in.
Even though I caught this within 48 hours of its beginning, this fraudulent use of my personal information would take me the better part of a year to repair. (That this happened during the COVID lock-down didn’t help.) I won’t bore you with the details of filing police reports, sitting on hold with banks, and all the other gyrations it took. I will only say that I worked on this issue for hundreds of hours. Hundreds. Keep that number in mind.
It turned out that Equifax, the very people I had turned to for protection of my information, had been ripped open like a kid going for the last cookie in the box. The data of more than 163-million people had been aired out. Then, they tried to hide the breach. Of course, that failed. Even I knew someone was emptying the box.
The Federal Trade Commission jumped in, eventually winning a consumer settlement from Equifax for more than half-a-billion dollars. A couple days ago, I received an email from my Equifax Settlement account stating that I could now collect my share of the settlement. My share that is supoposed to pay for the time and loss I suffered because of this data breach. The amount that the settlement decided was a fair shake for the hundreds (remember?) of hours of my time?
$14.87.
Yes, the decimal point is in the correct place.
Am I disappointed? Yes and No.
Of course, discovering that my time and personal information reads like the receipt for a fast food meal is disappointing. It is also encouraging because, in this very rare instance, a federal agency stepped in and aggressively protected its citizens. While the settlement pales compared to the costs incurred, I will take that $14.87 and happily spend it in one of my favorite hangouts. I’ll even offer a “Salud” to the FTC.
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