America’s trade watchdog has officially told millions in the US not to apply for the $125 it promised each of them as part of the deal it struck with Equifax – and instead take up an offer of free credit monitoring.
In a memo on Wednesday, FTC assistant director Robert Schoshinski said the regulator has been overwhelmed by people filing claims against Equifax after the biz was cyber-looted by hackers in 2017.
He then warned that, because the settlement with the mega-hacked outfit had been capped, it is very unlikely people will end up receiving that promised $125 each. In fact, the deal may be worth no more than 21 cents. We note that the FTC website folks can file claims through, ftc.gov/equifax, no longer mentions a $125 option, whereas the settlement website it redirects to still offers the cash lump sum.
“There is a downside to this unexpected number of claims,” noted Schoshinski.
“The pot of money that pays for that part of the settlement is $31 million. A large number of claims for cash instead of credit monitoring means only one thing: each person who takes the money option will wind up only getting a small amount of money. Nowhere near the $125 they could have gotten if there hadn’t been such an enormous number of claims filed.”
Incredibly retarded by the FTC – they knew how many people were hacked, so they should have expected around that many claimants.
Robin Edgar
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