An alarming Equifax data breach has left millions of Americans personal information exposed. Now, we're showing you how to find out if your information was exposed, and how to protect yourself in the future.
The records of 143 million consumers may have been stolen, including your information.
To find out if you're a victim, Equifax has set up a special website. Just enter your last name and the last six digits of your social security number. If your information was compromised, you'll be invited to enroll in free one year credit monitoring and identity theft protection.
But because there's so many people who need to enroll, the site will give you a personalized date for enrollment.
If your information wasn't exposed, it's still important to keep your financial information safe.
So how do you do that? For starters, use your cell phone as another layer of protection. It can alert you when someone logs into your financial, or email accounts.
And if you really want to protect yourself from fraudulent borrowing, freeze your three major credit reports on Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
This prevents anyone but you from accessing your credit reports, making it impossible to take out a loan or line of credit.
