Do you have a Yahoo account? You may bay be able to get up to $358 from their data breach settlement
If you’ve had an active Yahoo account such as Yahoo email, Yahoo Fantasy Sports, Yahoo Finance, Tumblr and Flickr between 2012 and 2016, you can now file to receive up to $358 or two years of free credit monitoring as part of the $117.5 million class-action settlement. Are you wondering how this happened? It’s because Yahoo had multiple data breaches that leaked out your personal information. Those of you affected by the breach may also be eligible for up to $25,000 in reimbursement for out-of-pocket losses suffered due to having your information stolen.
The worst of the breaches happened in 2013 when 3 billion accounts worldwide were hacked. Names, emails, telephone numbers, birth dates, passwords and security questions and answers were accessed by “malicious actors.”
The details about what you can receive in compensation can be confusing, and while the $358 number may sound nice, now it’s pretty unlikely that’s what most people will get.
The Takeaway
Yahoo has encouraged victims of the breach to submit a claim to receive a minimum of two years of future Credit Monitoring Services. Now if you already have a Credit Monitoring Service, you can still sign up for this additional protection although it probably won’t help you all that much.
So here’s an alternative: if you can show that you already have a credit monitoring service that you will keep for at least one year, you can submit a claim for a cash payment. Now here’s where it gets vague. The amount they pay you for the claim may be up to but not exceed $358.80. It’s all going to depend on how many Settlement Class Members participate in the Settlement. In other words, the more people fill out the form on Yahoo’s data breach website requesting money, the less everyone will get.
But if you can prove that the breach affected you personally, you could receive up to $25,000 reimbursement for out-of-pocket costs. That being said, for that kind of money you’re probably going to need to hire an attorney. Either way, you have until July 20th of next year to fill out the form to let Yahoo know that you want to be a part of the settlement. The website is yahoodatabreachsettlement.com. I might recommend filling it out long before the deadline.
Stay safe out there.
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