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Comment by brutal_chaos_ | Hacker News Reader

Free credit monitoring is the biggest scam of all:

- Company doesn't follow security practices and leaks data

- Feds get notified if it's a big enough breach. Btw, this is from the good will of the company

- Data Brokers...erm, Credit Agencies, then monitor for the data...i guess the insurance company sent it to them too, so they know what to look for?

- I don't know who pays for this (originating company, tax payers, etc)

- Credit Agencies now get to monitor you. Watch what you do under the guise of protecting you. While still building your credit score.

- Hopefully the info leaked and being used is accurate. If not, the Credit Agency has no obligation to fix it unless you say so and even then it can take a long time to remedy.

This just seems fucked.

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I have a creditor that reported a bogus charge. The source of the charge is an illegal clause in their contract, when I tried to get the charge removed from my credit report, they sent back as proof the final page of the document with my signature (not even the page with the clause in question) and that was apparently enough to validate the debt? So because I had signed _something_ for them, the debt was assumed to be valid. It's now at the point where the only means I have to remove it from my report is to sue them.

The last time I went to urgent care and then to the hospital, they had me sign for things on an electronic pad with no text presented or available.

Ha, now that I think of it, they probably had signs saying no recording and/or turn off your phone, so I may not have even been permitted to record what they said.

Unless such signs carry force of law where you live (I don't know of any such jurisdiction), always record conversations that take place in public settings.

Gym membership renewal?

> Free credit monitoring is the biggest scam of all

The root cause is a clause in Federal law[1] that precludes an individual from holding a creditor or credit bureau liable for inaccurate information regarding that individual. If we were able to sue the creditor and credit bureau because they engaged in libel, then identity theft would no longer be a thing because there would be incentive for banks and other creditors to actually verify the identity of the individual before issuing credit.

[1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1681h (e)

Wow, ok then. Screw the consumer. Too bad their neglect/delays/etc to update information isn't considered malice. People will lose out on homes, cars, be charged more if this false data is a negative on your credit score, while waiting for the kind overlords to make the appropriate changes.

Finally someone who gets it. Credit monitoring/reporting services are a straight up fraudulent scam to get more of your personal information. I feel sorry for the suckers who actually pay for such things.

Some of us do and have for awhile, but no one with power seems to know or care.

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