You could earn $ 125 by completing this Equifax data breach claim form.

I may have bet $ 125 Friday taking less than a minute to complete a claim form with Equifax, who agreed to shell out nearly $ 700 million to settle the related claims. a mbadive data breach at the consumer credit rating agency in September 2017.

My editor at CNBC claimed $ 125 after I told him about it and checked his eligibility.

He did it by first entering his last name and the last six digits of his Social Security number on this site here: Verification of the Equifax Claim.

Four members of my political team, sitting at a distance shouting from me in the newsroom (which is not a problem considering my strength) have all verified that they were one of the most 140 million people whose Equifax data was compromised.

As a growing number of other colleagues here at CNBC, at least one of whom was very skeptical about getting the $ 125 amount would be so simple.

In the hour or since I took seriously the possibility of a claim, filed it and sent a flare in the newsroom, at least $ 1,625 had been claimed at Equifax by my colleagues, and this number will certainly continue to increase.

If you do not want to use the link above, here is the portal for the filing of a claim offered by the Federal Trade Commission – a US government agency whose mission is to protect US consumers: FTC Equifax Claims.

This government site also provides the details of the regulation and its conditions.

Equifax on Monday accepted the huge reward of settling state and federal data breach investigations. The agreement, which must be approved by a judge, includes up to $ 425 million reserved specifically for the 50% and more Americans affected by the offense.

Hackers were able to access consumer information including names, social security numbers, birthdates, credit card numbers, and driver's license numbers.

The Equifax Settlement offers claimants four types of relief: credit monitoring, refund of lost time to process in case of data breach, refund of monetary loss, and partial repayment of Equifax credit monitoring. that you paid.

The maximum cash payment is capped at $ 20,000 per person for expenses such as losses resulting from unauthorized debits to their accounts, the costs of freezing or unblocking their credit reports, the cost of credit monitoring, the fees paid to accountants and lawyers and others.

An ever-increasing number of CNBC workers and I have asked for a lump sum cash payment of $ 125 after verifying our eligibility.

You can claim this lump sum if credit monitoring is already in place.

There are sites like NerdWallet where you can monitor your credit for fees.

"There should be no reason not to file, especially the main application," said Jack Gillis, executive director of the Consumer Federation of America.

He pointed out that the basic amount is probably what most consumers will ask for, adds Gillis.

Our claims do not necessarily mean that we will have all of the $ 125 – although I hope we will.

NerdWallet noted in an article this week that "there should not be more than 248,000 approved applications on the 147 million affected consumers – that's less than a fifth of a percent." – for approved applicants to receive the full $ 125 ".

But even if I only receive a fraction of that amount, the very short time that I spent submitting the application will be more than justified.

The deadline for filing a claim is January 22, 2020.

The administrator responsible for overseeing the settlement will not send benefits to claimants until they have been cleared by a court, which will be held on January 23 at the earliest.

Too late for Christmas 2019, but not a bad way to start the new year.

Good luck.