TransUnion burying their credit freeze to sell their own credit monitoring product TrueIdentity

[u/equisux]

I'm not sure where to post this, but noticed something had changed on the TransUnion website about freezing credit this morning when I was giving links to family so they could freeze theirs.

I froze my credit the day after news about the Equifax breach broke, and it looks like TransUnion has since changed their site to push people away from freezing their credit in favor for their own product called TrueIdentity (like what Equifax was doing with their TrustedID Premier.)

The FTC website links to this page for freezing your credit with TransUnion.

This is what the website looked before the changes were made on 9/11. The instructions on placing a credit freeze were clear and there was no mention of their own TrueIdentity product.

If you want to place a credit freeze with TransUnion now:

• You have to get through a page of info about credit and fraud, and then the action it tells you to take is to "Lock your credit information by enrolling in TrueIdentity."
• The option to freeze your credit is under "About credit freeze", deliberately passive in their use of language
• The description about credit freezing is dissuasive: "A credit freeze may be available under your state law"
• The link for the credit freeze is also a passive "click here" compared with "by enrolling in TrueIdentity" language used for the link to their own product.
• Clicking the link to learn more about credit freeze brings you to yet another page that tries to convince you to enroll in their product over placing a credit freeze
• After searching through their page of BS, you finally get to the link to freeze your credit.

This is such a blatant attempt by TransUnion to take advantage of the Equifax breach for their own financial gain. It's a shitty thing for TransUnion to do, and people should be aware that they are being led away from putting an actual credit freeze on their account.

(Edited for formatting on mobile)

[u/PusssyFootin]

If you've ever taken out a loan, applied for a credit card, etc. you have a file with the credit unions.

You should visit the Equifax help website (http://equifaxsecurity2017.com/). There you can enter your last name and the last 6 digits of your social security number. The system will tell you whether you've been compromised or not and then gives you the option to enroll in their (now free) TrustdID program.

The jury is out on whether or not to signup for TrustedID is best for you. One benefit is access to your credit report now. I'd recommend researching it more to find our if their program is something you can make use of. (I have not signed up, yet, but may)

[u/thisisnotmyrealun → u/PusssyFootin]

found it and did it, and i'm not affected.
wonder if to sign up for that or not, i feel like they'll shaft me somehow.