identity theft<\/a>.<\/p>\n\nWHAT DO CONSUMERS GET FROM THE SETTLEMENT?<\/p>\n
\nEquifax has a page, https:\/\/www.equifaxsecurity2017.com , with a link to look up whether your information was exposed.<\/p>\n
\nAffected consumers may be eligible for up to $20,000 in reimbursements for losses from unauthorized charges to affected accounts, legal and other fees, credit-monitoring or identity-theft-protection services and expenses related to freezing or unfreezing credit reports. For the time spent dealing with the breach, consumers can seek $25 per hour for up to 20 hours as compensation.<\/p>\n
\nAll impacted consumers will be eligible to receive 10 years of free credit monitoring, at least seven years of free identity-restoration services, and, starting in 2020, six free copies of their Equifax credit report each year for seven years. That’s on top of the free copy consumers can already get by law every 12 months from each of the three big agencies \u2014 Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. For minors, free credit monitoring increases to 18 years.<\/p>\n
\nIf consumers choose not to enroll in the free credit monitoring product available through the settlement, they may seek up to $125 as a reimbursement for the cost of a credit-monitoring product of their choice.<\/p>\n
\nConsumers must submit a claim in order to receive free credit monitoring or cash reimbursements.<\/p>\n
\nWHAT CAN CONSUMERS DO WITH CREDIT REPORTS?<\/p>\n
\nExamine all your listed accounts and loans to make sure that the personal information is correct and that you authorized the transaction. If you find something suspicious, contact the company that issued the account and the credit-rating agency.<\/p>\n
\nConsider freezing your credit, which stops thieves from opening new credit cards or loans in your name. It can be done online. Consumers can freeze their credit for free because of recent legislation, avoiding fees that were typically $5 to $10 per rating agency.<\/p>\n
\nYou’ll need to remember to temporarily unfreeze your credit, also free, if you apply for a new credit card or loan. And a freeze won’t protect you from thieves who file a fraudulent tax return in your name or make charges against an existing account.<\/p>\n
\nWAS THE PUNISHMENT EXPECTED?<\/p>\n
\nYes, Equifax said earlier this year that it had set aside around $700 million to cover anticipated settlements and fines.<\/p>\n
\nWHAT’S NEXT?<\/p>\n
\nThe settlement must still be approved by the U.S. District Court in Atlanta. Consumers can’t file claims until after the settlement receives court approval.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[ad_1] Equifax’s $700 million settlement with the U.S. government over a massive 2017 data breach includes up to $425 million for consumers. The breach was one of the largest ever to threaten private information, as the breach exposed Social Security and other data on nearly 150 million people. Affected consumers would get free credit-monitoring and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24065,104227,95225,92214,94535,92218,92228,95255,92211,95256,94533,4205,94534,104399,92884],"class_list":["post-142399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tie-world","tag-business","tag-computer-and-data-security","tag-computing-and-information-technology","tag-corporate-news","tag-gadget-news","tag-general-news","tag-government-and-politics","tag-new-products-and-services","tag-personal-finance","tag-products-and-services","tag-science-news","tag-technology","tag-technology-news","tag-transunion","tag-united-states-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}