USS personal data breach

[saltedcaramelhotchoc]

Has anyone else had an email from USS saying their personal data has been breached and offering them 12 months membership of something called Experian (some sort of credit reference agency)? I can't believe that first USS basically mis-invested our money and now they've managed to pass on my data... anyone else had an email today? and why aren't UCU onto this?

How much compensation do you hope to get and will the rest of us have to pay for it

Not necessarily. Did you use a comparison site back then, or did any of your insurance policies renew at that time? Both of those things would trigger a credit check.

What would you actually say when writing a letter to claim compensation? Can you give a rough example.

From 8 apparently random companies? No, of course I didn't or I wouldnt have mentioned it here and clocked it as odd. I don't even own a car at the moment so why would I contact AA insurance for example?

I haven't used a comparison website for over a decade either. I think I know enough about my personal finances to spot activity I don't recognise. Please don't patronise me.

And the title they used varied - two had no title, two had Miss one had Mrs a couple had Dr and one had Prof 🤷 very odd.

What are you supposed to do now, Mytholmroyd ? Who do you talk to, what can you change?

Was there any need to be quite so rude and aggressive with your reply? I was simply saying that 8 checks wouldn't necessarily indicate there had been fraudulent use of your details and suggested some common reasons that aren't always obvious based on the information in your original post. It was intended to be helpful rather than patronising. I only mentioned it because I regularly check my credit report and have spotted seemingly odd credit checks in the past which I've queried and found to be my own insurance company running a check prior to sending out my renewal quote. I've not always immediately recognised it because the trading name quite often differs from the company name (e.g. AA Insurance services trades under various names, and lots of their business has nothing to do with cars).

I too have had my data compromised because of this hack. As I say, it was intended as a helpful post. I can understand that you are feeling stressed but jumping down other people's throats isn't going to help you.

She said if you're distressed by the data breach so just tell them how "distressed" you are

Yes, I’ve seen letters around but they’re more of a complaint. You want to clarify what happened, got it affected you and that you want to be compensated for it quoting relevant statute law.

It’s a complete joke. I have no idea how Capita are allowed to continue trading, let alone win any contracts.

Given the seriousness of the breech, I assume there will be a common action - this has happened in the past with EasyJet and BA data breeches.

If you think you are a victim identity theft

"Contact CIFAS (the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service) to apply for protective registration. Once you have registered you should be aware that CIFAS members will carry out extra checks to see when anyone, including you, applies for a financial service, such as a loan, using your address."

You'd be better getting CIFAS protection

I had literally just been enrolled in this scheme days before the breach and the email offering me the 12 months protection.

I shall sign up for that and the CIFAS protection tomorrow.

Bloody worrying that they have so much personal info.

I got the email too. Scary stuff. Not happy about it at all and not convinced that the Experian service will help

Me too. I literally could not believe it, what a shit show. I could not really see what I could do about it. I thought the email was terrible if I am honest.

@DontMakeMeShushYou I said Please don't patronise me - 'Please' is 'rude and aggressive' now? Good grief.

It was the general tone of your post rather than specific words or phrases. What made you think "Please don't patronise me" was the specific part I was referring to?

As I said, it was intended to be helpful but as I can see that you're not interested I shall not engage with you further.

@DontMakeMeShushYou 'tone' in the written word is very much inferred by the reader - I inferred you were patronising me by assuming I didn't understand my financial situation and asked you politely not to do that - you inferred I was being rude and aggressive when I used no swear words, threats or called you any names etc and then you flounce! 🤷

@MedSchoolRat I don't know - found out today that my brother in law had a very similar set of searches on his Experian account earlier this month - same companies that searched mine AA, Lexis, a company in Guernsey etc which is weird. So looks like they have his data too. But why or what it is a check for I don't know.

I can't see on the Experian site where to flag them as not instigated by me. We are investigating further!

I think your CIFAS suggestion is good - have sent it to him too

The email just arrived with me this morning . I'm deferred member from years ago with a tiny pension. Just taken out a new mortgage so I guess at least it didn't interfere with that.

I just got it too. My husband hasn't, but may well do if they are taking this long to trickle through. What a pain.

Finally got the email this morning. What's really annoying is that my pension with USS is only worth £30 a year.

Oh and as I'm abroad I don't even get access to the identity plus thing. Just some other service which Experian offer which literally just scans the internet for your data and just shows that my email address was leaked in 2017 and 2020 but not even which websites. I can do that myself using google! I still have UK bank account and property so guess I'm going to have to pay myself.

Thank you to the posters who have provided useful information. If anyone has a form letter (or similar) that they can share with regards to GDPR / DPA violations I would be grateful as I am rubbish at this kind of correspondence.

Thanks in advance!

I was thinking of using a no win no fee solicitor to make a claim for co.pensation.. What do others think?

I'd join.