Money Tip of the Day Update: Free Credit Report Site Security

MARCH 15 UPDATE:

I no longer believe that the annualcreditreport.com site is absolutely safe. See this post for more details.

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I have learned that there is some concern over the security of the web site consumers use to get free credit reports they are entitled to under recently-passed federal legislation.

To refresh from a previous post, this site is currently available only to those in the West and Midwest, and will be available to those in the South and East later this year.

The World Privacy Forum is reporting that a number of impostor web sites with small variations on the correct web address have sprung up in hopes of misleading those who think they are getting their free reports into visiting other web sites or giving away personal information. They are recommending that consumers order their reports over the phone instead of online.

While I don’t disagree over the need for caution, if you do these things you should ordinarily be able to avoid a bad thing happening if you order online:

1. Type the exact address of the free report site, INCLUDING the www. (that is, type “www.annualcreditreport.com”).

2. Verify that you are immediately redirected to the secure page (”https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp” is the redirect address).

3. Verify that the security lock is present in your browser.

4. On the data entry page (the first page you visit after you tell the site what state you live in), verify that a “Verisign security” symbol is present near the top right on the page. Click on the certificate to ensure that it is indeed the certificate for “www.annualcreditreport.com”.

If you are uncomfortable ordering online, here are the alternatives again:

Phone: 877-322-8228
Mail: Annual Credit Report Request Service
P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281

Finally, there are still companies advertising that you can get “free” credit reports from them. If the ad does not recite the “www.annualcreditreport.com” domain, it is NOT where you would go to get the free annual reports you are entitled to under federal law. Instead, it is a site that is “giving” you a “free” report, but as a condition requiring you to sign up for a credit-monitoring or identity-protection service.

Open note to “www.annualcreditreport.com” webmaster: In at least five browsers (FF, Safari, and IE for Mac; IE and FF for Windows), the user MUST type the “www.” to get to the web site. If he or she doesn’t, the browser will return an “invalid URL” message. Many users will then think they got the site domain name wrong, put in a slight variation, and visit an impostor web site. Thanks for nothing, pal.