As many as 263,000 Missourians who applied for services from T-Mobile and who applied for credit through Experian could have had personal data compromised in a breach, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
Someone accessed T-Mobile’s data housed on an Experian server that included consumer information. Consumers who applied for T-Mobile USA postpaid services between September 1, 2013 and September 1, 2015 were affected.
Consumers’ names, addresses, social security numbers, dates of birth, identification numbers (usually a driver’s license number, military ID, or passport number) and other information used in T-Mobile credit assessments could be accessed in the breach.
Attorney General Chris Koster recommends affected consumers register for a credit freeze with all major credit reporting agencies as a precaution. That could prevent scammers from taking out a line of credit using information obtained in the breach. The freeze can be lifted at any time. Experian has said it will offer a credit freeze to affected consumers at no cost. Koster’s office offers information about credit freezes here.
Consumers could also place a fraud alert on their file with all three credit reporting agencies. Information about that can be found here.
Experian and T-Mobile are offering affected consumers two years of credit monitoring and identity protection services free.