UPDATE: Equifax Data Breach Affects Millions; Do you qualify for your Piece of the $125 Settlement?
Backstory: In 2017 Equifax admitted to having had a major data breach which exposed over 147 million people’s personal data which includes the following: addresses, credit card numbers, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, birth dates, driver’s license numbers and more. On Monday, 7/23 the Federal Trade Commission announced that Equifax has agreed to compensate those affected and was given a budget of up to $425 Million ordered to be paid for restitution.
Update: Since this data breach affected half the population, and the settlement went viral, millions of people have filed claims requesting to get $125 in lieu of 4 free years of credit monitoring services from all three credit monitoring services. The FTC is recommending members to either (1) request the credit monitoring services from the beginning or (2) change your request for $125 to getting the credit monitoring services, which is valued at “hundreds of dollars per year” according to the FTC.
Step 1: You can see if you are eligible HERE
If you are eligible, you can be compensated. You can receive free credit monitoring for up to 10 years (guaranteed 4 years) or elect to take a $125 payout. ***Note due to the overwhelming response, you will NOT receive $125, because once the initial $31 Million budget for this is reached, every person will have to split their share of the restitution. The more people that request a payout the less there will be to go around. If you incurred significant issues because of this data breach you can get more, each person is maxed at $20,000 in restitution for serious damages affected by persons (with proof.) Be sure to include all bank statements and any proof you have to fully support your claim!
You can also access this information through Equifax’s website.
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