The 2017 Equifax breach caused various issues such as monetary, time, emotional distress and physical impacts. Of those 21 percent of Equifax breach victims who have seen unusual activity, the most common unusual activity respondents noted so far relates to credit cards – 23.53 percent had a new credit card account opened in their name and 33.99 percent experienced changes to an existing card. Another 22.87 percent of respondents had other accounts opened including loans; checking or savings accounts; debit cards, or cable, internet or utilities accounts.

Changes made to checking, savings and debit card issues can be harder to recover from and take more time to clean up because there aren’t as many protections in place a Some other items that people also reported include that their email was flagged as being on the dark web and getting alerts of people trying to open new accounts even after freezing their credit files.

Another ongoing issue includes tax identity theft and fraud, where thieves use a Social Security number to file a fraudulent tax return and collect a refund, with 3.53 percent of respondents having either state or federal taxes filed fraudulently in their name. Also, 9.59 percent of Equifax breach victims had some sort of medical identity issue including receiving a medical bill or collection notice for services they never received, learning that medical records were compromised or discovering another person’s information on their medical records.