Laredo man says he's a victim of Equifax data breach

The Iowa Attorney General's office is urging on Iowans to "act now" following a massive data breach involving the credit reporting company Equifax. It seems that each day now we're learning more about the hack of Equifax and the subsequent breach of the personal data of over 143 million American adults.

Equifax shares sank to a 19-month low on Wednesday after the MA attorney general announced that she was preparing to sue the credit bureau over one of the biggest data breaches in history.

"Don't tell them anything", the alert says.

Iowans can check if the breach exposed their personal information at www.equifaxsecurity2017.com. "It's a scam. Equifax will not call you out of the blue", the warning from the FTC reads. "My team and I will do everything we can to protect consumers". A security freeze prevents credit, loans and services from being approved in your name until you unfreeze your account.

Rafael Flores says he first found out about the security breach on the news.

Equifax is providing free credit monitoring, but a term on its website said if you sign up for it, you'd waive your right to sue them in the future - now, the clause has been removed.

If you believe you are a victim of identity theft call the toll free Colorado Bureau of Investigation 24 Hour Identity Theft & Fraud Hotline at 1-855-443-3489. The companies charge for the service and if you want to apply for credit on your own you will have to lift the freeze, which could take up to a few days.

Consider placing a credit freeze on your files. Also, if your statement does not arrive as usual, contact the financial institution to make sure that an identity thief has not changed the address on your account. "They will make a decision based on your Canadian credit information", Morley said. "Do it earlier rather than later, because the longer you wait, the more time it gives someone else who has your social security number to file that return in your name, and then obviously, it gets messy", she said.

Local Better Business Bureau president, Monica Horton said usually when a data breach happens, consumers know what information was compromised, but not in this situation. If you contact any one of the three major credit reporting agencies, fraud alerts will be automatically added by the other two agencies as well.