what to do if you are affected by equifax breach

The deadline for submitting your claim with the FTC is coming up.

James Martin/CNET

You have just a few days to file your claim if you're amidst the 147 million people whose data was exposed in the 2017 Equifax information alienation. The Federal Trade Committee said you lot have till Jan. 22 to submit a claim to recover money you lot spent or lost as a effect of the massive database hack.

Equifax has agreed to pay at least $575 million and upwardly to $700 million to assistance compensate victims of hackers who stole personal information from Equifax servers. Payments as office of the settlement tin cover the costs to recover from the security breach of the free credit report company -- including recovering from the theft of your identity and freezing and unfreezing accounts -- and unauthorized charges to your account. Y'all tin besides submit a claim to cover the toll of protecting yourself from identity theft, following the Equifax data breach.

To become started, you can check if you and your information were exposed equally part of the breach. if your information was exposed, assemble receipts and other documents related to the hack that show losses and out-of-pocket expenses. And finally, submit your merits for compensation. (The FTC said that because of the overwhelming public response to the settlement, the amount of cash y'all get to cover monitoring may be much, much less than $125. And make sure you are on the legitimate FTC settlement site: The FTC said fake settlement sites are appearing.)

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The breach resulted in hackers stealing credit card and driver's license information, Social Security numbers, addresses, birthdates and other personal data stored on Equifax's servers. Equally office of its investigation, the FTC declared that the costless credit bureau failed to take reasonable steps to secure its network.

Fifty-fifty if y'all weren't part of the alienation and don't qualify to file a claim, y'all can get gratuitous credit reports for seven years as function of the settlement.

Taking part in the Equifax settlement isn't completely straightforward. The verbal amount that Equifax volition pay out is undetermined. The proposed settlement will start with a $300 million fund to compensate affected consumers who bought credit-monitoring services. Equifax will likewise pay $175 million to land and districts -- and $100 million to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in ceremonious penalties.

If the initial $300 million infusion doesn't fairly compensate consumers, according to the FTC, Equifax has agreed to kick in $125 million more to the fund, for a full possible settlement payout of $700 million. If y'all're a claimant, your share of the settlement could include gratis credit-monitoring and identity-theft protection services. Y'all might also exist eligible for cash payments to cover expenses resulting from the alienation -- such every bit legal fees and credit monitoring -- and for free help recovering from identity theft and free credit reports for 10 years.

Here's how to have function in the settlement.

Find out if you lot were afflicted by the alienation

If yous want to check whether your data was exposed, the FTC and official settlement site have an online tool you can utilise to check if yous were part of the Equifax breach.

You'll demand to enter your terminal proper noun and last six digits of your Social Security number to run across if your data was function of the hack.

To get started, enter your concluding name and concluding vi digits of your social.

Screenshot past Clifford Colby/CNET

Prepare and file your claim

On the Equifax Information Alienation Settlement website, you can file a claim to go dorsum coin you lost or spent as a result of the wide-ranging hack. Here's how to set up for and so submit a claim.

• To support your merits, you'll need to gather whatsoever documents and receipts you accept related to the breach to show expenses y'all had to recover from identity theft, for example, and money lost considering of the alienation.
• To follow the settlement, the FTC suggests you lot sign up to receive email updates.
• You can as well check the FTC's Equifax Data Breach Settlement page and the official data breach settlement page for updates.
• And the FTC has a number you can call -- (833) 759-2982 -- for updates.
• On the official settlement site, yous file a claim online.
• Y'all tin can also follow the instructions on the site to mail your merits or have a claim form mailed to y'all.
• Equally role of the claim process, you'll select which benefits you lot are eligible for and review which documents you lot demand to submit to back up your claim. Supporting documents include statements showing unauthorized charges, costs of freezing your account, fees paid to professionals to aid with the theft, and other associated expenses.
  

To commencement the claims process, provide some information.

Screenshot by Clifford Colby/CNET

What the settlement payments can encompass

The proposed agreement caps payouts at $20,000 per person to help comprehend what you spent to recover from the breach. Here are costs and expenses you may be able to recover.

• Expenses related to unauthorized charges to your accounts
• Costs of freezing a credit report and credit monitoring
• Fees paid to accountants, attorneys and other professionals
• Expenses for postage, mileage, notary and other services
• Fees related to credit monitoring, upward to $125. (But don't expect to become that much.)
  
• Cost of Equifax credit monitoring and other services for a yr prior to the breach.

In improver, get-go in 2020, Equifax volition provide all US consumers -- whether part of the settlement or not -- with 6 additional free credit reports per year for seven years, from its website.

When do I need to file a claim?

The FTC said you lot must file your claim online by Jan. 22 or with a Jan. 22 postmark. The soonest you lot volition receive benefits you qualify for is Jan. 23, the FTC said.

The FTC said if, afterward all initial payments, in that location is even so money in the fund, it will open an "Extended Claims Flow" to let you brand claims for out-of-pocket losses or fourth dimension spent that happen subsequently the initial claims deadline The FTC said you lot need to make fabricated by January. 22, 2024, and claims will be paid on a beginning-come up-first-served basis.

Originally published in 2019 and updated periodically.

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Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/youre-running-out-of-time-to-submit-your-equifax-data-breach-claim-heres-how/

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