More than half of Americans polled have yet to check if they were hacking victims of the Equifax breach but believe the credit rating firm should lose its credit bureau status.
The Hoboken, N.J. based LendEDU polled 1,000 American consumers following the Equifax revelation that a breach exploited a website weakness to access the personal information, including credit card and social security numbers of as many as 143 million Americans. Equifax admitted that hackers accessed certain files from mid-May through July on July 29 but waited until Sept. 7 to warn consumers.
LendEDU also analyzed the CFPB’s consumer complaint database for credit reporting complaints.
“As one can imagine, the fall-out from the Equifax breach has been massive and far-reaching,” the report said. It added, the day after the breach announcement, Equifax shares dropped 13% on Wall Street and there has been no shortage of lawsuits either, with one firm reportedly seeking $70 billion in damages, which would be the largest class-action lawsuit in U.S. history. On September 26, Equifax announced that Richard F. Smith, chairman and CEO of the credit bureau, had stepped down.
“Presumably, the legal ramifications from something as massive as the Equifax breach will take years to iron out,” LendEDU explained.
This poll conducted over a three-day span, from September 20-22, 2017, revealed several key data points:
- 84.20% heard of the Equifax cyberbreach.
- 55.11% have not checked to see if they were hacking victims.
- 26.48% planned on joining a class action lawsuit against Equifax, 46.32% are unsure.
- 83.01% either “Strongly Agree” or “Somewhat Agree” that lawmakers should enact stricter legislation and oversight to protect consumer credit information.
- Of the 842 poll participants that heard of the Equifax breach, 54.16% believe that Equifax should lose its ability to act as a credit bureau
In addition, LendEDU’s research team reviewed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s complaint database.
As of September 19, 2017, the CFPB had received 160,664 complaints in total so far for the year. Out of those 160,664 total complaints, 51,696 consisted of “credit reporting related” complaints, which at 32.17% of all complaints, were the largest type of grievance. When projected, “credit reporting related” complaints will have experienced a 67% year-over-year increase from 2016.
Of the 51,696 total “credit reporting related” CFPB complaints, 42,258 of them specifically named one of the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, TransUnion, or Experian. The grievances made against the major credit bureaus represented 81% off the total CFPB complaints filed as “credit reporting related.” The three major credit bureaus are on pace to receive 59,096 CFPB complaints this year. This number represented a major rise from the 41,792 complaints filed in 2016, or a 41% increase.
In 2017, so far, Equifax received 14,742 CFPB complaints, while Experian received 13,794, and 13,722. LendEDU projected Equifax to finish 2017 with 20,616 CFPB complaints, up 32% from last year.
LendEDU pointed out in the early going after news of the Equifax incident broke, there was much controversy surrounding a consumer’s right to check their information for hacking evidence. Initially, if consumers went through the Equifax website they forfeited their rights to join any future class-action lawsuit brought against the credit bureau. Equifax slipped this into the fine print of the consumer’s agreement. However, after discovering this loophole, Equifax succumbed to wide-spread pressure and removed that clause from the fine print.
“How Equifax handles the fall-out from the cybersecurity breach will be key in mitigating the potential for massive class action lawsuits,” LendEDU surmised.
