Back in July, I highlighted how readers could file a claim for up to $20,625 in the Equifax Class Action settlement for the massive Equifax hack that impacted 147 million Americans.
While that amount was surely unattainable for most, as I stated, a respectable $375 seemed plausible, through the methods that I highlighted in that article. Sadly, I (and all parties involved in the class action settlement terms) seemed to have grossly underestimated the response from the American people and overestimated the actual funding provided by Equifax for the alternative compensation portion of the settlement, which turned out to be a mere $31 million.
So, it is no surprise that the settlement administrators responded to the demand with an additional hoop for people to jump through with a recent email from info@equifaxbreachsettlement.com, with the ominous subject line:
“Your Equifax Claim: You Must Act by October 15, 2019 or Your Claim for Alternative Compensation Will Be Denied”.
Within the email body, which directs users to amend their claim on the official Equifax settlement website, was the following threat,
According to our records, you filed a claim for alternative compensation of up to $125 in connection with the Equifax data breach settlement and certified on the claim form that you had some form of credit monitoring or protection in place and will continue to have the credit monitoring in place for a minimum of six months from the date of your claim filing.
You must either verify or amend your claim by October 15, 2019.
If you do not, your claim for alternative compensation will be denied.
• To verify your claim for alternative compensation, you must provide the name of your credit monitoring service that you had in place when you filed your claim.
– OR –
• You can amend your claim to request free credit monitoring instead of alternative compensation.
The email looked pretty shady, so my first thought was, “Is this a legit Equifax email?”
This email (while shady and disrespectful) is, in fact, legitimate, as confirmed by the FTC. However, I’m sure spoofed sites and emails will follow, so if you want to be extra careful, you can amend your claim here (not spam).
I did so, with the claim number highlighted in the email, despite the fact that I had already done so with the original submission. In fact, I had outlined what I had submitted in my article 2 months ago.
“I checked credit monitoring services (Credit Karma/Credit Sesame) and my credit reports monthly (for many months) when notified of the breach.”
Hoop created. Hoop jumped through.
You can do (and claim) the same by signing up free credit monitoring through Credit Karma (see my Credit Karma review for more info) and Credit Sesame (see my Credit Sesame review for more info). Additionally, many credit card providers offer free credit monitoring. In amending your claim, you can opt for the $125 “alternative compensation” option versus the “You can amend your claim to request free credit monitoring instead of alternative compensation” option.
Curious to see what hoops they throw at us next.
Side rant: this entire Equifax hack and settlement debacle is the perfect example of what is wrong with a system that values corporate rights over consumer rights:
- Corporation acts unethically to obtain a product.
- Corporation profits off of that product.
- Corporation acts irresponsibly with that product, with a tangible negative impact on consumers/citizens.
- Corporation uses immense wealth & lobbying power to get out of any real responsibility for their behavior, paying pennies on the dollar for damage done.
- Wash, rinse, repeat.
We need to change that.
Update: you can now also file claim in the Yahoo class action settlement, which has VERY similar terms to the Equifax class action settlement.
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