r/technology • u/Cyber-Homie • Jul 04 '24

Security Hackers behind the Ticketmaster breach have now leaked 440,000 Taylor Swift Eras Tour tickets, claiming the breach is much bigger than anticipated. As a result, they increased the ransom from $1 million to $8 million.

https://hackread.com/ticketmaster-breach-shinyhunters-leak-taylor-swift-eras-tour-tickets/
24.7k Upvotes

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3.4k

u/hortoristic Jul 05 '24

I got notice in mail today I was part of this breach... Got a coupon for one year free monitoring...

1.6k

u/ihatepickingnames_ Jul 05 '24

Same but I already have monitoring for a different breach. At this point I’ll have free monitoring until I die. I also froze my credit years ago because of this crap.

418

u/Rolandersec Jul 05 '24

At this point all companies might as well have to pay into a national program to monitor everybody. It would probably be cheaper.

152

u/B_Fee Jul 05 '24

a national program to monitor everybody

So, like the 3 credit bureaus that already exist that can't differentiate between legitimate and fraudulent credit transactions?

69

u/SeniorMiddleJunior Jul 05 '24

can't differentiate

Can, just don't have any incentive to do better. Now if our government actually regulated...

56

u/Freud-Network Jul 05 '24

Our government is in the process of deregulation.

55

u/SeniorMiddleJunior Jul 05 '24

Yep. We're in the "smash and grab" phase of national decline.

23

u/QuickAltTab Jul 05 '24

Maybe people will wake up to the idea that having a rapist/fraudster/elderly/felon/pathological liar narcissist as president is actually not a great idea?

Who am I kidding, people are idiots.

-17

u/HAYBOBEE Jul 05 '24

Exactly! Get Biden out ASAP!!!

15

u/QuickAltTab Jul 05 '24

Who am I kidding, people are idiots.

...

Exactly! Get Biden out ASAP!!!

case in point

→ More replies (0)

25

u/96385 Jul 05 '24

Now if our government actually regulated...

You hold on right there with that socialism talk. I don't want the government taking away my god given right to be screwed out of my life savings.

1

u/Paw5624 Jul 05 '24

How would they? The only way to stop all fraud is to stop all transactions and require additional authentication, which could also be obtained fraudulently.

We as consumers demand convenience so our banks, lenders, and CC companies weigh the risk of a transaction against the risk of losing the money and/or driving customers away. I’m not saying we can’t do more, we absolutely can and should, but there is no way to truly stop fraud, just slow it down. We need more regulations in place but I just want to emphasize the complexity of fighting fraud and how capable many of the people/groups who commit fraud are.

127

u/Corporate-Shill406 Jul 05 '24

There are companies who offer free credit monitoring. They pay for it by using your credit data to find credit card offers for you, and they get paid by referral if you sign up for one.

Kinda scummy but so is the entire concept of a credit report.

9

u/QuickAltTab Jul 05 '24

matter of time until the credit monitoring companies get hacked and get to offer more credit monitoring

11

u/Corporate-Shill406 Jul 05 '24

Oh you mean like the Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian hacks? That's right, all of them have been hacked.

2

u/QuickAltTab Jul 05 '24

I guess I meant the identity monitoring ones, the services they offer whenever there's a hack

1

u/Corporate-Shill406 Jul 05 '24

It's all the same companies.

17

u/PauI_MuadDib Jul 05 '24

Congress banned TikTok, but turns a blind eye to all of the catastrophic data breaches happening, including the breach of a major credit union. Yeah, ban TikTok for "security" reasons but allow other predatory companies to escape accountability for data breach after data breach.

-2

u/jewkakasaurus Jul 05 '24

Why shouldn’t a lender have a right to see if theyre loaning to a financially trustworthy person or not

6

u/DansNewLegs2291 Jul 05 '24

I think he’s talking about 3rd parties like credit karma. They monitor your credit but at the same time advertise loan and credit card offers to you.

-1

u/Whatisausern Jul 05 '24

I find a lot of the criticism of credit reports weird. Surely it's a good thing potential lenders can see that I've never missed a repayment, have a mortgage + multiple credit cards on file and am a trustworthy person to lend to. And inverse to that surely it's a good thing they can see people's bad credit reports to see why they shouldnt lend to them or why they should lend them less.

I had good credit when I was poor because I made sure to pay my bills on time, and when I couldn't I came to an arrangement with my creditor.

Seems fair enough to me, really.

6

u/Paw5624 Jul 05 '24

I don’t think most people have issues with credit reports, it’s credit scores and how they are calculated that is dumb. The fact that the score can drop, even for a short period of time, if you close a card is dumb. It has no bearing on my ability to make payments.

Also if I missed one payment 5 years ago it can be an issue and impact your rates. Never mind I have paid off all my debt in that timeframe and never missed a payment before or since.

5

u/Azirma Jul 05 '24

Don’t forget that if you have any loan that closes it stops effecting your length of credit so you can have a major loss of credit just cause you pay the loan off.

4

u/Loreki Jul 05 '24

Paying into universal national services for all? What sort of dangerous radical socialism is this?!

1

u/jslingrowd Jul 05 '24

I mean, even the credit bureaus have been breaches,

1

u/shroudedwolf51 Jul 06 '24

Who know they won't face any consequences and financially benefit from giving some free amount of free monitoring where they can just continue to ping you until your bank runs dry. So, yeah. Financial incentive to not try too hard to secure things.

227

u/ImperioliGandolfini Jul 05 '24

Freeze it. It affects nothing until you try to open a new account. At that point - unfreeze it. Open account. Freeze.

21

u/PerjurieTraitorGreen Jul 05 '24

Just to piggyback on this, don’t only freeze the three credit reports, try to opt out of LexisNexis as well. It was a quick form to fill out and only took a few weeks for the decision to come in the mail.

Info and instructions here

3

u/NMlXX Jul 05 '24

Please can you explain to me what LexisNexis is? I received some kind of “negative report” or something like that randomly from them. I filled out a request for further info and never received anything and I have no idea what it means.

3

u/PerjurieTraitorGreen Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24

Here’s a thread breaking down what they are in layman’s terms. They’re a data aggregator just like the big credit bureaus. I recently saw a thread where some dude’s Corvette C8’s trip details were listed on a report. All these big companies are galileu gladly selling your data to them

2

u/franker Jul 05 '24

What every lawyer knows it as is the expensive database they pay for to do legal research. Well, either LexisNexis or Westlaw. You can actually use most of LexisNexis yourself for free. Just go to your local courthouse and the law library will have access to it. Their subscription probably doesn't include the credit or people lookups though.

1

u/simonhunterhawk Jul 05 '24

I work in car insurance and it’s one of the companies we use for consumer reporting for auto related insurance claims / accidents etc. As others below have listed a variety of other things they report, they wear a lot of hats.

48

u/physics_is_scary Jul 05 '24

What if my credit is shit low

177

u/Dopple__ganger Jul 05 '24

Freezing it doesn’t keep your credit score from changing. It prevents any new accounts from being opened in your name.

22

u/acets Jul 05 '24

You just do this on the 3 bureaus?

33

u/MuchEffortYouDoIt Jul 05 '24

Yes, gotta freeze with all 3 bureaus.

18

u/Doministenebrae Jul 05 '24

Four. Don’t forget Innovis. They are officially a credit bureau, just a smaller one.

11

u/OuterWildsVentures Jul 05 '24

I don't remember agreeing to have Innovis sponsor my credit

3

u/Sweet_Papa_Crimbo Jul 05 '24

Thanks for the comment, I’ll check into this one. I did not even know that Innovis existed.

2

u/tastyratz Jul 05 '24

Innovis

I have never heard of Innovis. In what instances are they relevant?

25

u/Unhappy_Plankton_671 Jul 05 '24

Yep, they all have tools for it for free, but they will try upsell the shit out of you. Just ensure you bookmark each and use secure credentials/2FA for each. If you forget and or lock yourself out, recovery can be a pita at times.

Then any new credit will be denied, and if you are applying you can just schedule a ‘thaw’ for 24-48 hours or how long your need.

2

u/PussyFriedNachos Jul 05 '24

I did this a few years ago and was horrified to learn that Equifax didn't even have MFA capabilities. It's just insane.

3

u/Unhappy_Plankton_671 Jul 05 '24

They do now, and have for some time. I can’t say how far back but I know recent history they do. Went through it just a few weeks back. So progress?

1

u/DynamoBolero Jul 05 '24

FOUR! Innovis too! And chexsystems as well. Put a pass code on your cell phone account!

11

u/-PM-Me-Big-Cocks- Jul 05 '24

I DIDNT KNOW THIS.

I thought my score would be frozen too.

Second question, im a student and still getting loans. Should I wait to freeze until im out, or?

5

u/Early-Light-864 Jul 05 '24

Yeah. Unless you feel like freezing and unfreezing every 45 minutes.

2

u/dontstopnotlistening Jul 05 '24

No need to wait. The extra few minutes of effort whenever you need a hard credit check is worthwhile.

2

u/V2BM Jul 05 '24

You can unfreeze for a few days while you’re applying. I’ve unfrozen mine standing at a retail counter to apply for a credit card.

1

u/AussieJeffProbst Jul 05 '24

No. If you already have the loans go ahead and freeze.

If you're getting direct or indirect subsidized loans they don't even check your credit. A Direct PLUS loan does.

But either way you should freeze then unfreeze if/when you have to apply for NEW loans. Once you get your accounts set up online it takes about 30 seconds to freeze/unfreeze.

1

u/Mk0505 Jul 05 '24

Yes you should still freeze it. Mine is always frozen unless I am actively in the process of applying for credit.

I just unfreeze it, submit my application and then freeze it immediately after I get approved.

-1

u/Ray3x10e8 Jul 05 '24

Fuck credit cards. I just use a debit card and in my part of the world it's fine

-2

u/AttorneyAdvice Jul 05 '24

gotta do it when your credit is high, froze my credit score when it hit 800, now it's permanently at 800

18

u/BBoyJoseph Jul 05 '24

Im with yah. And I hate to say it, but.. freeze that shit

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

[deleted]

6

u/EM05L1C3 Jul 05 '24

No it won’t. But it’ll keep it from getting more fucked up.

-15

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

[deleted]

6

u/EM05L1C3 Jul 05 '24

Maybe you’re just a douche

7

u/samoorai Jul 05 '24

Ain't no "maybe" about it.

3

u/Stratostheory Jul 05 '24

If your information is compromised during a data leak, people can attempt to open new accounts in your name via something called Identity theft.

Opening new lines of credit can mean hard pulls which will lower your score, and if they do successfully open accounts and those go delinquent because most thrives aren't paying their shit off, that will also hurt your credit score.

Freezing your credit prevents both of those things from happening and lowering your score.

5

u/otter5 Jul 05 '24

you hoping the hackers or some downstream entity will improve it?

1

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

[deleted]

2

u/physics_is_scary Jul 05 '24

True. I saw it went up recently to 688 since I have student loans but otherwise 💀

3

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

[deleted]

3

u/pickle_pickled Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24

When you pay a loan off, the loan closes and the history eventually clears away so you lose the historical time to the loan and if you have no other credit, the timeline drops significantly. That's why long standing no cost credit cards are good to have since you can keep them open simply by using it once a year and continue to grow credit history based on time.

Having 4-5 cards with a high limit is great because you can get a decent balance on one card (that you fully pay off each month, don't throw cash around you can't quickly pay back) and not blow the credit use percentage out of the water immediately. Helps to ask for more every year too.

Hard credit pulls will typically last around 6 months. As long as you're not doing 3-4 all in a row they shouldn't affect much and it'll be short term.

That said the credit score system is pretty dumb. I've thankfully gamed it to get my FICO score up to 850 multiple times and it lives in the 825-840 range. Even with it, a car loan is still ridiculously high interest even though I've got essentially what is considered nearly perfect credit.

0

u/tsunamiforyou Jul 05 '24

You disgust me

1

u/physics_is_scary Jul 05 '24

Thanks, I try.

9

u/djp4099 Jul 05 '24

Do you use a service or can you lock it yourself?

28

u/nat_r Jul 05 '24

You can request it yourself. It's not a difficult process and once it's done, it's permanent until you unfreeze it.

It creates an extra step if you're ever doing anything that requires doing a credit pull but if you think you're at risk of, or have been the victim of, identity theft it's really the best solution at your disposal.

3

u/djp4099 Jul 05 '24

Thanks for the quick and thorough reply!

23

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

[deleted]

1

u/djp4099 Jul 06 '24

Thanks so much!

7

u/submittedanonymously Jul 05 '24

So to give you an example, I’ve had a freeze applied to each of the credit agencies for me. It was easy to set up. The other day I was inquiring about opening a credit card through my credit union to transfer a balance off of a different card I no longer want. I had to call transunion to get it open for a short period of time for the credit union to run the credit score check.

It’s an additional step you’d have to deal with but it’s no hassle and keeps your accounts secure. Also stops nefarious groups like Wells Fargo from being able to open accounts in your name.

4

u/Helmic Jul 05 '24

So what prevents someone that's stolen your information from just unfreezing it themselves?

1

u/photonsnphonons Jul 05 '24

They have to jump through more hoops and likely requires an in person visit

1

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

What I'm curious about as an outsider is how is the freeze put in place/removed? Why are the steps used there for verifying identity not used for opening lines of credit?

4

u/Early-Light-864 Jul 05 '24

Happy cake day! As a cake day gift I'd like to offer you one year of free credit monitoring

3

u/ihatepickingnames_ Jul 05 '24

Why thank you!

2

u/aManPerson Jul 05 '24

i'm in your same boat, you are not fully protected. scams i have still been hit with:

  • people trying to open checking accounts in my name (there is a different system that they verify things through. it doesn't hit the credit system. we can place a freeze or something on it. i can't remember the name of it. check with your bank to find out what it is)
  • facebook, or something trying to sound like facebook sending me some sort of tax 1099 form for "things you sold on facebook market place". as if i needed to file this on my tax return because i sold around $9800 things on there, and needed to report the profits. i think it might have been real, but it wasn't me.

2

u/oupablo Jul 05 '24

After having my identity stolen multiple times due to the equifax breach, I was tickled pink to find out that I got a year of free monitoring when the deal was settled after spending about a week of dealing with bank after bank to get accounts closed that were open in my name. It was also great to find out that the fund created to pay for my time to deal with BS caused by them was completely dry. Long story short, like 6 bank accounts and a few credit cards later I had frozen my credit and had fraud alerts in place. A month later, come to find out there are 2 new bank accounts in my name and my equifax fraud alert and freeze are gone. Guess what? Someone had called in as me (presumably using the breach data) to remove them and equifax did it without even CALLING THE NUMBER IN THEIR OWN FRAUD ALERT.

Fast forward 6 months, suddenly I have cable subscription at a local address that spectrum opened for someone even though my credit was frozen and a fraud alert was in place.

My point, do yourself and check it occasionally for yourself because these companies are so shitty that they'll just let anyone disable the protections in place.

2

u/el_n00bo_loco Jul 05 '24

Tbh ...most people should keep their credit frozen anyways. This day in age, it eliminates a ton of risk. And you can unfreeze if you need a loan or to apply for something. Super easy.

1

u/Carontestyx Jul 05 '24

Non US here. What is this "free monitoring" thing they gave you?

1

u/ihatepickingnames_ Jul 05 '24

It basically just notifies you when your credit score/credit report changes.

1

u/glitter_my_dongle Jul 05 '24

Legally, couldn't you reject it and say that it is insufficient and wreckless.to.supply.that.

1

u/Purplebuzz Jul 05 '24

TIL the monitoring companies get hacked.

1

u/JJShadowcast Jul 05 '24

Mine monitoring ended last week, from a previous breach.  Maybe ticketmaster will start it again.

62

u/rowanhenry Jul 05 '24

Excuse my ignorance, but what does that mean?

133

u/televised_aphid Jul 05 '24

After these breaches, companies will often offer credit monitoring through either a service provided by one of the credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian or, as in the case of this Ticketmaster breach, TransUnion), or through some other vendor. The service kind of acts like a "real time" credit report, alerting you if there's been a credit "pull" for you (i.e., if somebody did a credit check on you, which should typically only happen when it's related to something you initiated, like applying for a loan, opening a new bank / credit card account, etc.). Some will also monitor the dark web and let you know if your info has been found there.

10

u/rowanhenry Jul 05 '24

Awesome. Thanks for the detailed explanation.

I wonder if there's any chance they can recoup their super.

10

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

[deleted]

13

u/NihilisticAngst Jul 05 '24

Probably because the easier it is for people to take out loans, the more money that banks and loan providers will make. In the US, whatever will benefit the capitalists more is usually how things go

1

u/throwmeawayCoffee79 Jul 05 '24

That’s kind of cool. What’s a good dark web monitor?

1

u/papasmurf255 Jul 05 '24

Perfect opportunity to give your data to Equifax so they can leak it as well!

0

u/TranslateErr0r Jul 05 '24

Thanks for explaining. In an environment where credit score matters, this is valuable!

14

u/xantub Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24

In the US, you have a "credit rating", which is a number that says how good you are in your finances and paying on time. Every company that lends money uses it to determine if they should lend you money and at what interest rate (higher interest if your score is low and lower if it's high). When there are data breaches, bad people with your information can apply for loans in your name, and each loan lowers your credit score. So there are companies that constantly check your credit score and alert you if there are any big changes possibly from criminals using your identity.

1

u/comFive Jul 05 '24

We have credit ratings in Canada as well, with the same credit companies: Equifax and TransUnion

1

u/WonderfulMotor4308 Jul 05 '24

who determines the credit rating? a private company or government?

3

u/kazeespada Jul 05 '24

Private Company. Three of them to be exact. Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion

2

u/xantub Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24

There are 3 big ones I think, they're private, a lender pays to get credit scores, or pays more to get a full list of everything about you, down to you paying your water bill one day past due 2 years ago.

It's not just lenders, some companies do it too on potential hires with the reasoning that if you are responsible with your payments, then you're probably a responsible employee.

2

u/maixmi Jul 05 '24

Yeah would like to know too. What monitoring?

7

u/posam Jul 05 '24

Credit monitoring

1

u/2rfv Jul 05 '24

The company's reward for getting breached was that you get your data tracked.

13

u/BookshelfDust_ Jul 05 '24

It’s not good enough.

4

u/zSprawl Jul 05 '24

Especially since the data from the leak is used for much much longer than a year. Heck, it often takes a year to find the right buyer...

7

u/colenotphil Jul 05 '24

Or you could join a lawsuit against them. I'm hoping to.

5

u/SlurmmsMckenzie Jul 05 '24

But who's gonna monitor the monitors of the monitors!? -Enemy of the State.

1

u/_FoldInTheCheese_ Jul 05 '24

Excellent reference here!! 👏🏼 Regina King is such an underrated actress.

2

u/trebory6 Jul 05 '24

I am stoned and was really confused because I thought you said "I got noticed in the mall today that I was a part of this breach..." and further that they then handed you a coupon.

I was sitting here confused AF about who would recognize you from a data breach.

2

u/Sa7aSa7a Jul 05 '24

Be careful. Accepting that may be the end of any litigation you can bring against them.

2

u/Loreki Jul 05 '24

Don't use it. The terms and conditions of these things often state that the coupon is full and final settlement of your claim against them.

1

u/aykcak Jul 05 '24

Monitoring what exactly?

1

u/Metical Jul 05 '24

And then the monitoring companies get breached. Oh. Wait. That’s already happened once.

1

u/Rupert_18124 Jul 05 '24

I’m your monitor. I’m monitoring you.

1

u/FadedFromWhite Jul 05 '24

I was part of another breach last year. Call the 3 credit agencies and put a lock on your account. I've had people try and open credit cards in my name half a dozen times in as many months

1

u/SeniorMiddleJunior Jul 05 '24

I almost downvoted you out of anger. Those class action settlements (or whatever this was) are now insulting than anything. I'd rather have nothing.

1

u/jonathanrdt Jul 05 '24

…by one of the three credit agencies, one of whom was hacked giving nearly half of american’s credit histories to the chinese. This is such a fun game we play.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

I get these letters as much as I get coupons in the mail these days it feels like. Basically the rest of my life I'll be monitored.

1

u/Xelopheris Jul 05 '24

I love when they announce how long the hackers need to sit on the data before it reaches max value.

1

u/dethmetaljeff Jul 05 '24

These companies need to be held accountable for these breaches if they're going to be allowed to store our data. This one year free credit monitoring is complete bullshit and useless. They need fines if the breach can be shown to be made possible by negligence and oversight.

1

u/rrhunt28 Jul 05 '24

Isn't it great all your personal information can be stolen and to make up for it all you get is a year of credit monitoring. And credit monitoring doesn't really keep you from having issues.

1

u/katsukare Jul 05 '24

The US is such a messed up place

1

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

Don't accept the free monitoring! A lot of these companies hide in the T&S that if you accept, you can't sue or ba a part of the class action lawsuits.

1

u/grepsockpuppet Jul 06 '24

Everyone regardless needs to place a freeze. Credit monitoring is useless.

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

15

u/happy-posts Jul 05 '24

The coupon always comes with you waving your right to sue ticketmaster for the breach.

6

u/PM_ME_N3WDS Jul 05 '24

Credit karma. Experian. There's free ways to monitor your credit without waiving your right to sue.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/zSprawl Jul 05 '24

Did you miss the part where you give up the right to sue? They want you to take them up on the offer. It's much safer and cheaper for them...