Broker check
Is Equifax legit and safe?
Reviewed August 1, 2026
Short answer
Equifax is a legitimate credit bureau with the worst data-security record of any company on this site. In 2019 it agreed to pay at least $575 million, potentially up to $700 million, to settle with the FTC, the CFPB and 50 states and territories over the 2017 breach that exposed the personal information of 147 million people. It is not a scam. It is a company that lost the data of roughly half the adult US population.
| Type of site | Credit and risk brokers |
|---|---|
| Cost to remove yourself | Free |
| Time to submit the request | 10 minutes |
| Account required | No |
| Typical time to disappear | processed within five days, though offers can keep arriving for weeks |
| Opt-out actually handled by | OptOutPrescreen, jointly run by all four credit bureaus - one request can cover several sites |
| Enforcement actions we found | 1 documented - see the public record below |
Is Equifax a scam?
No. The confusion is understandable, because the breach spawned a long tail of fake settlement and credit-monitoring sites. Equifax itself is real; anything asking you to pay for your breach settlement or your free annual report is not.
What Equifax actually is
A nationwide consumer reporting agency compiling credit accounts, payment history and public records into files sold to lenders, landlords, insurers and employers. It also operates workforce and marketing data businesses, and the Teletrack product.
Where Equifax gets your data
Creditors furnishing account data, public records, employers reporting payroll data through its workforce products, and purchased commercial data.
Is it legal?
Regulated under the FCRA. Your rights to see, dispute and freeze your file are free and statutory. The 2019 settlement also required Equifax to provide affected consumers with credit monitoring and to reimburse time and money spent dealing with the breach.
What Equifax exposes about you
- Credit account and payment history
- Name, address history and date of birth
- Marketing list membership
- Prescreen eligibility lists sold to lenders and insurers
The real risks
- Your data was very likely in the 2017 breach, which included names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and addresses.
- Because Social Security numbers were exposed and cannot be reissued casually, the resulting fraud risk is effectively permanent.
- The marketing opt-out and a security freeze are different requests, and only the freeze prevents new-account fraud.
- Fake settlement and monitoring sites still trade on the breach.
Equifax's public record
July 2019
Equifax agreed to a global settlement with the FTC, the CFPB and 50 US states and territories over the September 2017 breach that exposed the personal information of 147 million people. The settlement was worth at least $575 million and up to $700 million, and made up to $425 million available for consumer relief covering time and money spent addressing identity theft.
FTC press release, July 2019 ($575M Equifax settlement)What to do about it
You can remove yourself for free, and you do not need a reason. Our step-by-step Equifax opt-out guide covers the current process - about 10 minutes, no payment, and no account needed in most cases. Expect to repeat it every few months, because these listings rebuild from public records. If you would rather see which sites list you before starting, the free exposure scan checks the major brokers, known breaches, and public profiles tied to your username without storing anything.
California residents have a stronger option: the state's free DROP platform sends a single binding deletion request to every registered data broker. Everyone else can see what your state allows.