Scam of the day – October 12, 2024 – MoneyGram Suffers Major Data Breach

Steven Weisman, Esq.

2 years ago

Today’s Scam of the day involves yet another major data breach. This time the victim was MoneyGram a popular company with more than 150 million customers that helps you send money electronically to bank accounts or mobile wallets. MoneyGram confirmed earlier this week that it had suffered a data breach that occurred between September 20th and September 22nd, but that the company did not become aware of the data breach until September 27th. It appears that hack occurred when through the use of social engineering a hacker impersonated a MoneyGram employee and contacted MoneyGram’s IT help desk and was able to convince the IT employee to provide access to MoneyGram’s networks.

The compromised data includes names, home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, birthdays, bank account numbers and, most problematic, Social Security numbers of MoneyGram customers. Armed with your Social Security number, a criminal can make you a victim of costly identity theft quite readily.

So what can you do to protect yourself from these data breaches that will be occurring?

TIPS

One important lesson is to limit the amount of personal information that you provide to companies and websites whenever possible. For example, your doctor doesn’t need your Social Security number for his or her records.

You should make sure that you have a unique password for each of your online accounts so that if one of your passwords is compromised in a data breach, all of your accounts will not be in danger. If your information is compromised in a data breach, you should immediately change the password for that account.

If you have not already done so, set up dual factor authentication for each of you accounts where it is available. This will protect you from having those accounts stolen by someone who may have access to your password. However it should be noted that the malware responsible for this particular data breach is able to bypass password requirements and dual factor authentication.

Freezing your credit is also something everyone should do. It is free and easy to do. In addition, it protects you from someone using your identity to obtain loans or make large purchases even if they have your Social Security number. If you have not already done so, put a credit freeze on your credit reports at all of the major credit reporting agencies. Here are links to each of them with instructions about how to get a credit freeze:

https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze/
https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze
https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html

Everyone also should monitor their credit reports regularly for indications of identity theft. The three major credit reporting agencies now provide free weekly access to your credit reports so you can monitor your credit reports easily on your own. Here is the only link to use to get your free credit reports.https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action

Some scammers have websites that appear to offer “free” credit reports, but if you read the fine print, you often may find that you have signed up for unnecessary services.

MoneyGram is offering two years of free credit monitoring and identity protection services. For information for signing up for these free services if you were affected by the data breach use this link.https://www.moneygram.com/mgo/us/en/notification/referenceguide/

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