And what happens if I call to unfreeze but have lost the PIN? Can I never get a loan again for the rest of my life? Or is there some way around the PIN - perhaps only requiring the already leaked information?
You call them up... but this will probably no longer work b/c of the data breach. Otherwise you snail mail them a letter with a govt ID and they send you a new pin.
Exactly. There's no shot this "PIN" is like one-way a encryption passphrase. There is definitely a way around it.