Over 15 Million Users Potentially Impacted, Including Over 1 Million In New York

Schneiderman: Customers Should Take Immediate Steps To Protect Their Information Moving Forward

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman offered consumers tips to guard against potential identity theft and other fraud after it was reported that an unauthorized party accessed an Experian server that contained the personal information of more than 15 million T-Mobile users.

“Our office takes data breaches seriously,” Attorney General Schneiderman said. “I urge people to take immediate steps to determine whether you have been a victim of ID theft and to protect your information going forward.”

T-Mobile reports that over 1 million New York residents may have had their data compromised, including their social security numbers.

The compromised data was used by T-Mobile in connection with credit checks of individuals who applied for T-Mobile services from Sept. 1, 2013 through Sept. 16, 2015. The data included name, address, birthdate, Social Security numbers, other ID numbers (such as driver’s license, military ID, or passport numbers), and additional information used in T-Mobile’s credit assessment. According to Experian, its consumer credit database was not accessed in this incident.

AG Schneiderman offers consumers the following tips to guard against identity theft:

• Monitor your credit report. You are entitled to one free credit report every 12 months from each of the three nationwide credit bureaus (you can request one free report from a different bureau every four months to monitor throughout the year).
• Consider placing a security freeze on your credit report to prohibit the release of any information from your report without your written authorization.
• Beware of phishing attemptsand unsolicited calls or emails offering credit monitoring or identity theft services. Consumers should never provide their social security number, credit card or other personal information in response to unsolicited emails or calls.

If you find unexplained activity on your credit reports or if you believe you are the victim of identity theft, contact the Attorney General's consumer hotline at 1-800-771-7755 and review the Attorney General’s materials on identity theft, available here, or the Federal Trade Commission's identity theft resource, available here.

Additionally, Experian and T-Mobile will offer affected consumers two years of credit monitoring and identity protection services for compromised customers at no cost. Credit monitoring alerts consumers to fraud after the fact, so it is recommended that consumers consider requesting a credit freeze to deter fraud, in addition to credit monitoring. Visit www.ProtectMyID.com/SecurityIncident or call Experian at (866)-369-0422 for more information about its credit monitoring and placing a credit freeze on your accounts.

If consumers already have credit monitoring in place from a previous breach, they might consider adding the Experian/T-Mobile monitoring if it would provide a longer coverage period.

Under New York law, businesses with New York customers are required to inform customers and the Attorney General’s Office about security breaches that have placed personal information in jeopardy. The Attorney General’s Office investigates data breaches to determine if customers were properly notified of the breach and if the entity had appropriate safeguards in place to protect customers’ data. The Attorney General recently proposed new legislation to make consumer information more secure.

More information about the T-Mobile/Experian breach is posted on Experian’s website here. Experian has said they are notifying all individuals who may have been affected.