“I was speechless, I don’t know what to say honestly,” Rancho Penasquitos resident Riley Evans said.
It was in front of his computer where Riley found out he was part of the huge Equifax breach.
Equifax announced 143 million names may have been stolen, meaning there’s a 44% chance of being in that number.
To be safe, Riley said he ordered his own personal credit report through Equifax but what showed up on his screen wasn’t what he expected.
“It says ‘Hello, welcome somebody else’s name,” Riley said.
Instead of his own credit report, Riley said he got a personalized credit report for someone else, unrelated to him.
“It has somebody else’s info, all their personal details, their previous addresses..everything about them,” Riley said.
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Riley lives and works in San Diego but the credit report he received was for a woman in Texas.
“So not only is my data breached but they’re giving out random, personal data to other people,” Riley said, “You don’t even have to be a hacker, you’re just asking for it.”
NBC 7 Responds contacted Equifax about Riley’s situation. In an email, Ines Gutzmer, a spokesperson for Equifax, told NBC 7 Responds, “Our policy precludes us from commenting on issues relating to a specific consumer. We will follow up with the consumer, appropriately."
“It’s stunning to me that at this point, with a bright, hot spotlight on them, that they aren’t taking the steps to ensure their security infrastructure is working properly,” said Eva Velasquez with the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego.
Eva said her center has heard from consumers voicing their fear and anger over the breach and has posted a fact sheet of items consumers need to know on their website.
To see the fact sheet, click here.
In addition to this fact sheet the center has posted online, Eva sat down with NBC 7 Responds to talk about what consumers need to know. Watch Eva’s interview with NBC 7 Responds below:
