Loss of tapes containing personal data of Disney shareholders

[tonytone]

For Disney shareholders only--did any of you recently receive a letter from "BNY Mellon Shareowner Services" informing you that, due to a loss of some data tapes which contained personal information about you (including SSN) by their tape archive vendor, they (BNY) are offering free credit monitoring for 24 months through Experian? I received this letter the other day, but before I activate the free credit monitoring I want to be sure that this offer is on the up-and-up before I submit my SSN as part of the activation process. Yes I know I can just call them up and verify it myself, but am curious as to whether I'm the only one who received such a letter...

[rph13]

We have not received any letters like this, yet.

[AVP]

Yes, we received the same letter yesterday.

AVP

[Drince88]

Are you 'giving' your SSN to Experian, browsed indepedently from your favorite browser, or by clicking a link that was in the email. If it's legit, they should have some sort of code that you put in when you sign up with the credit monitoring agency to get it for free. I NEVER enter personal data by clicking on the links in emails. Some phishers are REALLY good at making their sites look like the real deal.

[AVP]

Drince, this wasn't an e-mail (at least in our case), it was a printed letter. It does have a Web site address you can enroll on, as well as a toll-free number to call and an activation code.

AVP

[Drince88]

Cool, well, not cool, but it sounds like they did what they needed to to let you know it wasn't phishing!

[Second Star]

Little tip for email phishing schemes:

I haven't tested this on a Mac, as I have not had to opportunity to work on a Mac quite a few years . But:

On Windows, if you hover your cursor over an html link in Outlook, it will display a box with the actual hyperlink address. I general hover over the link and compare the link as it is typed in the email and the display box. No match, I trash it immediately. Unless it is a company I do business with, then I forward it to their fraud unit, and then trash it.

Just a little FYI for those who might to interested.

[EmmasMom]

I just got a letter in the mail from BNY Mellon shareholder services. It says that an archive services vendor lost a box of back-up tapes that contained some Disney stock shareholders name, address, social security number and share holder information. My info was on a missing tape. They are offering credit monitoring. Oh, and the box was lost in February and they just sent the letter.

Did any one else get one of these letters or have an experience like this?

Is this my Disney Year of a Million Nightmares prize?

[Karin]

Yes, Kenji got the same letter yesterday.

[nixsys]

Yepper. Received the same from our friends at Bank of New York Mellon. Yeah, and that free credit monitoring they're offering? You have to, get this, give them your SSN again! I told them what they could do with their offers. . .


Do yourself a favor, put a credit-freeze on the BIG 3
Send the bill to:

BNY MELLON
ATTN: SHAREOWNERS SERVICES
PO BOX 358631
PITTSBURG, PA 15252-8014

[markarkaymat]

I just received a letter as well. I am not very financial/credit savvy, in fact I only got Walt Disney Shares when I ordered a "One Share" from one share dot com of Pixar and then it got converted to Disney Shares. Seems like a credit freeze is the better option (rather than the 24 months of credit monitoring). Can anyone offer any advice on this? Is the major concern disclosing SSN again to BNY Mellon for the 24 months of cerdit montioring??

[tonytone]

Okay...so what course of action are you folks looking to go with--free credit monitoring or credit freeze (not free)? Seems like the general consensus (so far) is to do a credit freeze...and even if you have to pay for it, it's a small price to pay in order to prevent possible credit theft/fraud that may arise due to the loss described in the letter...but the principle of the matter would seem to dictate that we shouldn't have to pay for something due to an issue that wasn't of our own doing.

FWIW--I did a whois lookup on the domain name of the website offering the free credit monitoring (the company offering the free credit monitoring is some subsidiary of Experian or something like that); although the domain owner info does not appear to be that of a company of dubious origin, it is somewhat interesting to see that the owner info is not similar to that of the domain owner info for Experian.com itself, given that the free offer is being offered indirectly by Experian.

[Drince88]

Is the credit freeze you guys referring to the same as telling the 3 agencies not to give instant credit/etc? Unless that's changed, companies don't always pay attention to that.

A sister had her identity compromised, and had a note in her credit files. AFTER the note was posted, cell phones were given out with 'instant' credit - and what do you know, it was the other people and they didn't pay their bill. There was also a bank account opened. She STILL had to mess around with getting things cleared up (for the second time) when she went to buy another house.

[Aladdin's Lamp]

Its a scam by the people that run consumerinfo.com. They go under a bunch of different names and they have a long history of consumer complaints and FTC orders against them. Search for yourself or take a look at these links for more information:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/credi...sumerinfo.html

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/...Off0282897.htm

http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com...rinfo-com.html

Once you sign up for their service, youll never be able to get rid of them!