The bad news keeps coming for people trying to get credit monitoring after the massive Equifax data breach.
The site you are supposed to use to sign up for credit monitoring has been crashing. And scammers are already taking advantage of that.
Site goes down again and again
Are you trying to sign up for Equifax' free credit monitoring though its "TrustedID" program?
Frustrated users received an error message much of the day Thursday onTrustedID.com, as the system crashed under the weight of millions of inquiries.
Kenny Burke was among a group of churchgoers at Cincinnati's Northminster Presbyterian Church, who have had no luck in setting up Equifax's credit monitoring.
"I'm not very happy about it," he said. "First thing I did was go online and find out I was one that was hacked."
Rich Reder got halfway into the signup, but "at that point, it says 'watch for an email.' And we've never gotten that email," he said.
Caution using Google
Frustrated in their attempt to get through to Equifax and sign up for credit monitoring, a lot of people have been using Google, trying to find another way to the site.
However, that can lead to a problem where you can stumble upon a fake Equifax website.
The domain name aggregatorPastebin.com says people have registered hundreds of misspelled variationsof Equifax, such as "Equi Facts."
A phony link can be so convincing that CNN/Money says Equifax accidentally tweeted a link to one of the fake websites, sending them to "Security Equifax 2017" instead of "Equifax Security 2017."
Consumer groups say the best way to protect yourself is with a Credit Freeze at all 3 agencies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
If you can't find the link to sign up for a freeze (it can be hard to find), you can Google for them. Just make sure you spell their names correctly, so you don't go to the wrong site and you don't waste your money.
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