Scherer Urges Residents to Protect Personal Information, File Claim Following Equifax Settlement

DECATUR, Ill. – In response to the recent settlement over the 2017 Equifax security breach, state Rep. Sue Scherer, D-Decatur, is encouraging residents to check if their personal financial information was compromised and to file a claim.

“Giant corporations like Equifax that make billions of dollars collecting personal information must be held accountable if they fail to keep that data safe,” Scherer said. “Some people that had their data compromised were the victims of thousands of dollars of fraud. They should be compensated for their financial losses and the time they had to spend dealing with the fallout of the data breach.”

On Monday, Equifax filed a settlement for $600 million, including a Consumer Restitution Fund of up to $425 million. More than 147 million Americans had personal data of some kind stolen from Equifax including credit card numbers, Social Security numbers and other personal information. Equifax will pay those affected by the breach depending on the severity of how their data was compromised.

Scherer is urging those who wish to file a claim or see if they are eligible to visit www.equifaxbreachsettlement.com or https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/refunds/equifax-data-breach-settlement for additional details on the settlement. Consumers have until Jan. 1, 2020 to file an initial claim.

“Even if you haven’t seen any suspicious charges on any of your bank or credit card statements, it’s still possible that your data may have been hacked,” Scherer said. “I strongly encourage residents to check to see if their information was compromised and to file a claim to receive some form of recourse.”