RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein is asking T-Mobile customers in the state to take steps to protect their information from identity theft.
The warning is a result of last August’s T-Mobile data breach that impacted more than 53 million people, including 1,041,556 here in North Carolina, according to Stein’s office.
“If you were a T-Mobile customer last year, please take action right now to protect your financial and personal information,” said Attorney General Josh Stein. “T-Mobile’s data breach exposed more than 1 million North Carolinians’ personal data. This is unacceptable. Companies must do better protecting their customers’ information.”
The breach exposed names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and information from driver’s licenses or other identification.
According to Stein’s office, it was recently discovered that “a large subset of the information compromised in the breach was for sale on the dark web.”
If you were or think you might have been impacted by this data breach, it’s recommended that you take these steps:
- Monitor your credit. Credit monitoring services track your credit report and alert you whenever a change is made, such as a new account or a large purchase. Most services will notify you within 24 hours of any change to your credit report.
- Place a free security freeze on your credit report. Identity thieves will not be able to open a new credit account in your name while the freeze is in place. You can place a credit freeze by contacting each of the three major credit bureaus:
- Equifax | https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze/ | 1 (888) 766-0008
- Experian | https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html | 1 (888) 397-3742
- TransUnion | https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze | 1 (800) 680-7289
- Place a fraud alert on your credit report. A fraud alert tells lenders and creditors to take extra steps to verify your identity before issuing credit. You can place a fraud alert by contacting any one of the three major credit bureaus.
- Additional resources: If you believe you are a victim of identity theft, go to identitytheft.gov or https://ncdoj.gov/protecting-consumers/protecting-your-identity/ for assistance on how to report it and recover from it—or contact the North Carolina Department of Justice at 1-877-5-NO-SCAM or https://ncdoj.gov/file-a-complaint/.
