I’ve been caught up in the Amart breach, note I believe it was only to people who had made warranty claims.
My question is, they have my full name, address, email and phone number, is it possible to lock my credit with the various credit reporting agencies?
I hear its an American thing, is it possible to do here?
I also wondered about my property title, as there isn’t a mortgage that ‘safeguards’ an illegitimate party, I think I can pay to be notified if anything happens.
I’ve gone through and made alias emails for the obvious websites, Paypal, Ebay, Amazon.
I’ve already had dodgy emails addressed to me personally, where as before it was only addressed to my email.
I just want to protect myself and my credit, any advice appreciated
Thankyou
The credit bureaus have a service. One is Equifax Ultimate at $14.95 a month, and supposed to report all activities on your name.
To obtain an authoritative answer ring each and ask. Our CRB’s call them ‘bans’ and from the following link it appears they are only short term and there are negatives as well as the positives.
The US advice is summarised in this 3rd party web site. It would be worth reviewing prior to ringing our locals for any other options they might offer, so you are well informed about what might be possible and the nomenclature to compare with the local option(s).
Appears to intersect with 2 issues we have unfortunately experienced. Someone near and dear sent for pain relief, some hemp gummies on line. Oops synthetic stuff has not much, no? pharmaceutical value and CC sent overseas is a no no. Comm bank helpfully just cancelled and re issued new.
Using pwned site I discovered my email, phone no was for sale on the dark? Web. It was traced back to Bunnings click and collect platform I used. No apology. I clear my CC every month but was pestered by scam email and on my mobile for MONTHS. Bunnings lower prices, free hacking to every customer.
I also got caught in the ShopBack breach Sept 2020, its a pain in the neck, having to go through and use alias emails to try and stop them accessing info.
The scammers were trying to get into my Microsoft account, I had no idea until I saw recent login attempts on my Microsoft account (no notifications or anything), luckily I have 2FA, so I created an alias email for that one too.
Then early last year, I was watching TV, I literally had phone in my hand, an alert came up stating I had just spent $1.30 in New York ($1 attempt with 30% conversion), in that instance I was quickly able to lock my credit card, then spent an hour trying to get in touch with bank.
Now I keep my credit card locked, just unlock it prior to use, doesn’t affect direct debits.
