People who have suffered from the massive hack will be offered a settlement option. Millions of people are likely to have received an email or letter suggesting they are eligible to claim a class action settlement after the incident at the consumer credit agency, Equifax. How can you make sure the email is legit?
Almost 150 million people had their Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses, and possibly other personal information stolen after a huge, long-term data breach was announced by Equifax. In exchange for the resolution of all remaining class action lawsuits against it, the company agreed to a settlement that included up to $425 million to compensate persons harmed by the breach. The payback time is here.
Equifax data breach settlement prepaid card: Is it legit?
You might be hesitant to open the linked links if you received an email claiming to be a data breach announcement. There is a way to verify an email.
To redeem, copy the redemption code from the Equifax data breach settlement announcement and paste it into the search bar on myprepaidcenter.com/redeem. Acceptance of a Mastercard agreement is required to complete the process.
You can use your last name and last six digits of your Social Security Number to see if you were affected by the incident. As public awareness of the payouts increases, so will the likelihood that phishers and other scam artists would attempt to take advantage of this.
You can choose to pay with a check or a card. You can get free credit monitoring or up to $125.
Should you pick free credit monitoring or cash?
Credit monitoring services are free of charge as part of the settlement. You will receive $1,000,000 in identity theft insurance, free credit monitoring for up to six more years from Equifax, and at least four years of credit monitoring from all three major bureaus. You can get free credit monitoring for the next 18 years if you were under the age of 18 in May.
If you already have credit monitoring or protection services, you can ask for a cash bonus of up to $125. The amount of money you receive will likely be less than you think.
If you already have credit monitoring services that will keep you covered for at least another six months, $125 cash is a good option. Most instances, free credit monitoring for 10 years is the better option. A credit monitoring service costs an average of $30 a month.
A credit monitoring service’s ten-year value is $1,200. This is much more than $125. Many people don’t keep up with their credit monitoring service. If you’re worried about fraud and identity theft, you might be more comfortable knowing that your credit is being monitored for the next decade. In the end, it’s up to you if you want a data breach settlement or free credit monitoring.
There are 4.5 million applications for the $125 cash award. The average compensation payouts will be closer to $7 since just $31 million was set aside.
The settlements that made the news this year include: Epic Games settlement, T-Mobile data breach settlement, ATT settlement, Tiktok data privacy settlement, and Snapchat privacy settlement.
Equifax data breach summary
It has been a long while since. There was a data breach at Equifax.
The personal information of 150 million clients of Equifax was compromised in a data leak that occurred in one of the company’s computer networks.
It was vulnerable to identity theft and other forms of fraud because it had sensitive information such as names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and credit card details.
The timetable for the settlement of Equifax.
- July 2019: Equifax had agreed to pay at least $575 million and maybe up to $700 million, according to the FTC.
- January 2020: The court gives final approval to the settlement.
- Amount of actual settlement: $425 million (Equifax Breach Settlement)
- January 2022: Settlement completed (FTC)
- February 2022: The settlement administrator delivers activation codes to qualified customers who choose free credit monitoring services.
- Fall 2022: Benefits for eligible out-of-pocket expenses associated with the breach or identity theft resulting from the breach, as well as time spent (up to 20 hours) regaining control over the data breach, begin to be distributed to customers by the settlement administrator.
Today’s biggest problems are data breeches and hacks. Check out the latest hacks and data breeches before we continue.
What is Equifax?
One of the three biggest consumer credit reporting companies is Equifax Inc., an American multinational company with its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, which is also known as the “Big Three”.
More than 88 million organizations and more than 800 million individual consumers are collected by Equifax. Credit monitoring and fraud prevention services are available directly to individuals and businesses can receive demographic and credit data.
There are financial interests in America, Europe and Asia Pacific. The company with more than 10,000 employees is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the name EFX.
