Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen is teaming with the attorneys general from the District of Columbia, Illinois and Pennsylvania to demand that Equifax halt enrollment in its fee-based credit monitoring service following reports of a data breach impacting up to 143 million people.
Although Equifax is offering free credit monitoring services in response to the breach,
Jepsen and his fellow attorneys general complained in a letter to the Atlanta-based company that it was “seemingly using its own data breach as an opportunity to sell services to breach victims.”
While acknowledging that Equifax has agreed to waive credit freeze fees for those who would otherwise be subject to them, the attorneys general argued that Equifax should take steps to reimburse consumers who incur fees to completely freeze their credit with rival credit bureaus Experian and TransUnion.
“Consumers are understandably angry and upset about this breach, and their feelings are entirely warranted given the extremely sensitive nature of the compromised information,” Jepsen said. “This breach has also caused considerable confusion, which could lead breach victims, who are already vulnerable, to inadvertently sign up for a costly program instead of the free service. Additionally, consumers, who are at absolutely no fault in this situation, should not have to pay anyone to completely freeze their credit.”
