To be clear, a credit freeze won’t protect you from someone stealing your identity, but it will make it more difficult for them to use your stolen identity to open fraudulent credit accounts in your name. The theft of social security numbers and other personal details means that someone out there might have all of the information they need to steal your identity. The fact that Equifax, one of the major credit reporting agencies, suffered a security breach serves as a warning. In fact, identity theft accounted for $16.8 billion in losses spread across 16.7 million victims in 2017. With nearly all of our financial and personal information living in the cloud, we are increasingly vulnerable to fraud and identity theft.

In other words, a credit freeze helps to prevent new credit accounts from being established in your name.įreezing your credit (also known as placing a security freeze) is becoming increasingly important. Without that credit file, lenders generally will not extend credit to you – or anyone claiming to be you. Freezes prohibit consumer credit reporting agencies from disclosing the contents of a credit report to any person requesting the data. A credit freeze is one of the most important steps you can take to protect yourself from having identity thieves open credit accounts in your name.

Equifax credit freeze