Equifax wants you to jump through more hoops to get your $125 data breach settlement
If you got an email recently with a long subject line, you might have disregarded it as spam or promotion. But if you filed a claim with Equifax for your share of a data breach settlement, you'll want to pay attention.
The company is making consumers jump through even more hoops, by sending sternly-worded emails to those who have already filed claims.
Now, instead of simply filing the claim and waiting for compensation, customers must verify that they have some form of credit monitoring or protection in place and will continue to have it in place for a minimum of six months from the date of filing.
Related: Equifax hack settlement will provide at least $125 to each affected consumer
In order to still receive your settlement, you must either verify or amend your claim by Oct. 15, or your claim will be denied. Equifax is requiring customers to provide the name of the credit monitoring service at the time of filing. The company also said customers can amend filed claims to request free credit monitoring instead of cash.
There have been several reports that suggest that people who filed to collect $125 from Equifax won't actually receive the full amount. Just $31 million has been set aside for reimbursements for alternative credit monitoring, according to CNN.
In July, the company agreed to a “global settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and 50 U.S. states and territories.”
In 2017, Equifax disclosed that hackers accessed sensitive data for 143 million Americans including names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, driver’s licenses, credit card numbers, email addresses and phone numbers. The number of affected Americans was later increased by another 2.5 million, and then increased again by another 1.5 million to 147 million.
