Tens of thousands sign up for Combs' offer of state-paid credit monitoring

More than 42,000 people of the 3.5 million whose information was left exposed by Comptroller Susan Combs' office have taken her up on a free credit monitoring offer and at some points overloaded the phone lines of the company providing the service.

CSIdentity added capacity to its call center midday Monday because some people were waiting 10 to 15 minutes on hold, said company president Joe Ross. Others were getting busy signals.

The company is urging those who are eligible for the free one-year service to register online at https://txfreecredit.csidentity.com.

Combs apologized again last week for the information breach and offered free credit monitoring, after offering reduced-priced monitoring a few days earlier. The CSIdentity free offer became available Friday. Combs' spokesman Allen Spelce emphasized Monday that those affected have a 90-day window in which to enroll.

Combs' office is paying CSIdentity $6 per person for the service. The company estimates about 10 percent of those affected will sign up.

Customers are asked a series of questions prompting them to verify key information. It is compared with information in the comptroller's system. Then there is a lapse in time before the customer gets an email back with instructions on how to complete the activation of the service.

"Considering the volume and scope, it's going very well," Ross said.

Some who have reported problems with the web site may have a situation in which some of their information wasn't available or wasn't correct in the comptroller's database, company and state officials said.

Retired teacher Mary F. Ryan, 63, of Lancaster experienced problems with the web site then enrolled by phone, after a series of phone delays. She was still waiting for the call back Monday to complete the process.

Some enrollees have complained that only one of the three major credit monitoring bureaus is covered by the free service. Ross confirmed only one bureau is included but said that covers about 90 percent of data because the three services typically share information.

Those who want "tri-bureau" monitoring can sign up for a fee.

Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/05/some-40000-people-of-the.html

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