Equifax in the hot seat for exhausting its data breach settlement funds – BGR



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Even when it returns victims mbadive data breach in 2017, Equifax still can not seem to avoid a mess. The credit reporting agency has been in the midst of much criticism since the Federal Trade Commission revealed in an urgent announcement to the public that the settlement fund Equifax used to pay cash claims to victims quickly depletes. And that victims who come forward to file a claim for compensation in the future should probably just go ahead and choose a non-monetary alternative.

You can read that and think: wait, did Equifax not agree to a $ 700 million settlement with the FTC because of the violation of Equifax's servers that saw hackers extract more than 200,000 numbers payment cards and expiration dates? Yes that's right. In addition, up to now, payments of up to $ 125 have been made to victims under the settlement, as well as a replacement offer to monitor credit free of charge. Unfortunately, the portion of the overall cash pool that will be used to make direct cash payments to victims is only $ 31 million.

"It's unacceptable," wrote one person in a comment on the FTC's post at one of the links above. "The court and Equifax knew that there were 147 million plaintiffs. Why offer $ 125 per claim and reserve only $ 31 million? Has anyone forgotten to do the math?

For her part, the FTC points out that she thinks that monitoring the free credit offered under the settlement is worth anyway more than money. This is because victims will be able to access their credit files free of charge from the three national credit reporting agencies – and the offer even includes up to $ 1 million in identity theft and credit insurance. restoration of identity.

However, even this attracts criticism. Another commentator on this article from the FTC stated that "my data has been compromised many times and I have received many free credit control offsets."

As we have previously stated, Equifax data breach victims have a number of options that they may request via the settlement website, including the following: direct payment option or free credit monitoring. Alternatively, if they have spent time recovering from the episode or suffering loss of money, they can claim up to $ 20,000. It is not necessary to provide documentation to justify a claim of $ 125, but for $ 20,000.

That being said, Marc Rotenberg, President and Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center The Washington Post "Something's wrong," thinking that $ 125 was a possible offer at the start, while officials "now have to argue," Look in small print. "

Image Source: JUSTIN LANE / EPA-EFE / REX / Shutterstock

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