The holiday shopping season is in full effect. Credit experts, like Intellicheck have a word of caution for consumers, according to Business Wire. They're advising holiday shoppers to closely monitor credit card and bank statements now, and in the months ahead.
In July of 2017, roughly 147 million people had personal information stolen during an Equifax data breach. Fast-forward to this holiday shopping season - a time would-be thieves have been waiting for the chance to prey on those affected by the breach.
Equifax is one of the three major credit reporting agencies in the nation, tracking information from consumer credit cards, mortgages, student loans, car loans and more. Last year's data breach, which likely affected 44 percent of the U.S. population, comprised consumers' names, social security numbers and birth dates.
According to a Business Wire article, "fraudsters typically wait up to 18 months before using the personally identifiable information they've stolen. Based on when that breach occurred, we expect this to be a very dangerous holiday shopping season as the data in hackers' hands from the Equifax breach should be hitting the market now, just as the holiday shopping season is in full swing. The timing couldn't be worse for retailers and holiday shoppers."
Credit experts advise consumers to be vigilant in watching and monitoring banking and credit card account statements; limit the use of your debit card when making purchases and opting to use credit cards or cash and when shopping online to stick to websites that offer 'payment security features' and sites that they or someone they know are familiar with.
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