A state consumer advocate says people affected by a large data breach should check out a website to get their settlement.
In September of 2017, Equifax announced a data breach that exposed the personal information of 147 million people. Under a settlement filed last month, more than a half a billion dollars-- including up to $425 million to help affected consumers-- Equifax agreed to help people whose information was exposed in the data breach.
Lara Sutherlin is the administrator of the Division of Trade and Consumer Protection. She says the claims period for restitution ends next January so they're encouraging people to check it out and consider their claim...
"...What that restitution allows for is either free credit monitoring for up to 10 years, or $125 payment of credit to you. That particular part of the settlement is capped at $30 million and I understand from the Federal Trade Commission that a lot of people have already made claims for that $125...."
Sutherlin outlines another aspect of the breach...
"Consumers who were affected by the breach can ask for restitution for the amount of time that they expended addressing that breach. Each person is capped at $20,000 for those expenses. The kind of expenses you can get recouped are losses for unauthorized charges to your account, cost for freezing or unfreezing your credit report, cost for credit monitoring, fees to professionals like an accountant or attorney..."
Sutherlin says documentation is required to get the settlement. We have a link to the FTC website here.
