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Article snippet: In the last few days, several hundred of you have sent me questions or tweeted about the Equifax breach and its credit freeze process. I don’t blame you, given that you’ve melted their websites and phone banks since the company announced last week that up to 143 million people may have had their Social Security numbers and other data stolen. In the absence of much, if any, cogent response from Equifax in the early days of its crisis, I’ve been sending your questions to its representatives and putting them, unanswered, in my columns when I can’t get a reply. Now, the company is finally answering some of them. Here’s what I’ve learned about, among other things, Equifax’s credit freeze process, whereby people lock up their files so that no thief can get new credit by impersonating them. One cautionary lesson: The company doesn’t always get its answers right. Do Equifax’s website and phone systems actually work at this point? Yes, the company maintains, though barely if all the messages in my email are any indication. Some people are waiting until the middle of the night to try to use Equifax’s security freeze website and even failing then to get through. It’s like trying to get Bruce Springsteen tickets, except nobody wants to see this particular show. Equifax told me that it is not deliberately throttling down its web servers to keep people from getting freezes. (It’s tempting to believe that they would do this, given that freezes make it harder for the company to ... Link to the full article to read more