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Data Breach Letters: Should I Sign Up?

racecar
  |     |   616 posts since 2014

They are so common, it sometimes seems as if I get a required Data Breach Notification Letter every week now. From just about everywhere -- employers, payroll companies, health insurance companies, banks, credit unions, doctor groups -- none of which bother to secure their information properly until it's too late. Then once they've been hacked and required to send out a notice, it's always way too many months after the breach.

Until recently, the ones I used to receive would offer a free 1-year subscription from one of the large data/credit companies (which I never bothered with), but I've noticed over the past year or so, the most recent batch (and sadly, I do mean batch) all seem to offer the free year from a company called "IDX."

I've never heard of IDX and know nothing about them.

I'm sure everyone here has received at least one (probably dozens) of these letters over the years. Has anyone bothered to sign up for the "free" 1-year subscription?

Up to now I've refused to sign up because: (a) my credit files are frozen, (b) I monitor my credit regularly, (c) I refuse to pay for someone else's negligence, and (d) the offered "free" 1 year subscription seems like just a temporary gimmick to a (then) greedy pay service that I do not wish to be a part of.

Thoughts, anyone?

On IDX?

On if you ever signed up for the "free year," if it was worth it, or did you just wind up giving Big Data more of your data for no reason?

PS: IDX's offering seems so shoddy, their "1 year free" offered service only includes SINGLE Bureau Credit Monitoring, not all three.

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7


Answers
fred_b
  |     |   172 posts since 2022
IDX is owned by ZeroFox which is trading on NASDAQ for less than $1 a share. Signing up is pretty much an opportunity for IDX to try to upsell you their premium subscriptions.
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5
Rickny
  |     |   1,296 posts since 2017
I have signed up for these services but only if is with one of the big credit agencies or Kroll. I like the alerts I get when new accounts are opened using my name.

I laugh at the credit card companies who list only the last 4 numbers where they  note yout account # but if you look at the string of numbers your full credit cardnumber is in string. 
   My wife had her 401k administerd by one of the big brokerage companies.  They actually had her social security number in a string of numbers on all statements and other mailings. My wife was an executive in her companies HR department.  It continued until they replaced the 401k administration.
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4
racecar
  |     |   616 posts since 2014
Oh yes, I know it's a sham, giving these companies your money AND more of your data for them to sell just so they can then not safeguard it properly and start the whole cycle again; the "free" year is just a gateway to upsell and keep you subscribed after the first year. And sadly, I get these so often that I'm sure I could keep those "free years" going because I constantly get data breach letters.

I was just curious if anyone had bothered with these. Like RickNY, I wouldn't even consider it if it wasn't from one of the major companies. Fred-b, I had no idea IDX was trading at under $1, but it doesn't surprise me with how shoddy their product is (one is supposed to eventually pay for only SINGLE bureau monitoring?!) And as PD said, there are ways one can help stop it from happening. Personally, I freeze all my credit scores; to me it's worth the small hassle of unfreezing them for a couple days if I want a new account somewhere, otherwise they're frozen.

Brian Krebs (https://krebsonsecurity.com/) who writes great articles on cybersecurity (check out his website if you haven't yet), has had some great articles over the years on the terrible job the credit agencies do -- and the stupidly easy ways anyone can access someone else's files that the companies will only fix after months and months of having it brought to their attention, if then.

Well, I'll of course be throwing this latest "IDX" offer away.
Let's see how many days it take for the next one to come!
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