Equifax scams
Last updated September 19, 2026
The short answer
Equifax scams use credit anxiety as the hook: a fake fraud alert, an offer to freeze your report for a fee, or a "breach settlement payout" needing your bank details. Freezing and unfreezing your credit is free by law at all three bureaus, and no legitimate settlement asks for a payment or a bank login to release money.
The 2017 Equifax breach exposed the personal data of roughly 147 million Americans and produced years of legitimate settlement notices — which is precisely why impersonating Equifax still works. People have been trained to expect unsolicited contact about their credit from a company they never chose to do business with, and they have been trained to worry. Scammers use both halves.
How Equifax scams work
- 1
Fake credit-monitoring alerts
An email or text warns of a new account, a hard inquiry, or a score drop, with a link to "review". The page harvests your login, or asks for SSN and date of birth to "verify" before showing the alert.
- 2
Charging for a free freeze
A site or caller offers to place a security freeze on your credit for a fee, sometimes a recurring one. Freezes have been free at all three bureaus nationwide since 2018. The fee is pure profit, and the data collected to "place" it is the real payload.
- 3
Breach settlement payout cons
A message says your settlement payment is ready and needs bank details or a small processing fee. Real class-action administrators do not charge fees and do not ask for logins.
- 4
Credit-repair upsells
A caller claiming to be from Equifax offers to remove negative items for a monthly fee. Nothing lawful can remove accurate information, and advance-fee credit repair is illegal under the Credit Repair Organizations Act.
Warning signs
- You are asked to pay to freeze, unfreeze or "lock" your credit report
- A message about a credit alert asks for your SSN or date of birth before showing you anything
- A settlement payout requires a processing fee or a bank login
- Someone promises to remove accurate negative items from your report
- The link is not equifax.com or annualcreditreport.com
- A caller from "Equifax" contacts you first about a problem with your report
- You are pushed to act before you can check your report yourself
Examples
A $39.95 freeze that was always free
A search for "freeze credit Equifax" returns an ad for a service charging $39.95 per bureau plus $19.95 monthly "maintenance". The site collects full SSN, date of birth and address history. No freeze is placed. Doing it directly at equifax.com would have taken four minutes and cost nothing.
The settlement that wanted a routing number
A text says an Equifax breach settlement payment of $412 is pending and links to a form asking for account and routing numbers "for direct deposit". The real settlement administrator pays by cheque or pre-arranged payment and never collects bank details by text.
What to do
- Freeze your credit directly at equifax.com, experian.com and transunion.com. It is free, and you must do all three.
- Get your real reports at annualcreditreport.com — the only federally authorised source, free weekly.
- Never pay for a freeze, an unfreeze, or a credit lock. Free is the law.
- Ignore inbound alerts and check your report yourself. A real problem will be visible there.
- Report advance-fee credit repair to the FTC — it is illegal, not just a bad deal.
Report it to Equifax
Report suspected fraud and place a free freeze at equifax.com. Equifax will not call you about a problem with your report.
Getting your money back
If you paid a fee for a freeze or credit repair, dispute it with your card issuer as a service not rendered and report the company to the FTC — advance-fee credit repair is unlawful and the FTC acts on these. If you handed over an SSN and date of birth, the response is the freeze you were being sold: place one free at all three bureaus, file at IdentityTheft.gov for a recovery plan, and pull all three reports at annualcreditreport.com to see whether anything has already been opened.
Frequently asked questions
Does it cost anything to freeze my credit?
No. Security freezes and thaws are free at all three bureaus for everyone, by federal law since 2018. Anyone charging for one is running a scam or, at best, selling you something you can do yourself in a few minutes. Note that a freeze must be placed separately at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
What is the difference between a credit freeze and a credit lock?
A freeze is a statutory right, free, and governed by law. A lock is a product the bureaus sell, often bundled into a paid subscription, with terms set by the bureau rather than by statute. For stopping new-account fraud, the free freeze does the job.
Where do I get my credit report for free?
annualcreditreport.com, the only site authorised under federal law. All three bureaus are available there, free every week. Sites that ask for a card number to show you a "free" report are selling a subscription, and some are simply harvesting your identity.
Other companies scammers impersonate
Scams reuse their scripts across brands. If you were contacted about Equifax, these are the guides worth reading next.