A data breach is a magnet for scammers. Be aware of emails and calls pretending to be from Capital One or the government. Neither banks nor the government will ever send an email or call you to ask for credit card or account information or your Social Security number.
Capital One has announced that a data breach has exposed the personal information of 100 million people in the United States and 6 million in Canada.
Capital One will notify the people affected and offer them free credit monitoring and identity protection services. However, whether or not you were affected, there is no time like the present to check your free credit report and take other steps to protect against identity theft.
According to the bank, most of the stolen information came from the credit card applications of consumers and small businesses. The information includes names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, and more, all from applications filed between 2005 and early 2019.
News of the Capital One breach comes just one week after the Federal Trade Commission announced that Equifax agreed to pay up to $700 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the FTC, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and 50 states and territories, stemming from the credit reporting giant’s 2017 data breach, which affected about 147 million people.
Here are some helpful links if you were exposed in the data breach.
If your information was exposed in the data breach, you can file a claim at EquifaxBreachSettlement.com
Not sure if your information was exposed? Use this look-up tool to see.
You can file a claim here.
Visit Identitytheft.gov/databreach to learn more about protecting yourself after a data breach.