Back in July, T-Mobile agreed to pay out $350 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by a number of the company’s customers over a 2021 data breach. At this point, it’s still possible to claim a piece of the payout, but time is running out. Here’s what to know.
Why was a class-action lawsuit filed against T-Mobile?
In an August 2021 statement, T-Mobile confirmed that there had been a “highly sophisticated cyberattack” against the company’s systems, which had compromised data files with personal information from roughly 7.8 million current customers, as well as 40 million former or prospective customers. This information included first and last names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license/ID information.
In May 2022, a group of T-Mobile customers affected by the data breach filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, in which the plaintiffs allege that the number of current, former, and prospective customers impacted was actually around 76 million.
Two months later, the T-Mobile filed a settlement proposal with a federal court in Kansas City, Missouri, agreeing to pay $350 million to settle the customers’ claims, plus an additional $150 million to upgrade its data protection. The wireless carrier specified that this was not an acknowledgment of any wrongdoing.
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Who can claim money from the settlement?
At this point, most people eligible to be part of the class-action lawsuit have already been contacted, but if you think you’ve been overlooked, you can find out by emailing the settlement administrator, or calling 833-512-2314.
How much money could you get from the settlement?
The amount you could potentially receive from the T-Mobile settlement varies depending on the type of claim you make:
Reimbursement
The first option is to claim money for unreimbursed out-of-pocket financial losses you incurred from the data breach, plus $25/hour to cover the time you spent dealing with its aftermath.
If you go this route, you can receive a maximum reimbursement of $25,000 (between the financial losses and lost time). Yes, that’s a lot of money, but it will also require a lot of (additional) time and paperwork to get it.
Cash payment
Those who don’t want the hassle of going through the reimbursement process can receive a single cash payment of $25 from T-Mobile. The one exception to that is people who resided in California on August 1, 2021, who can receive a $100 cash payment.
How to file a claim in the T-Mobile data breach settlement
You can either submit a claim form online, or download, print, and complete the claim form, and mail it to:
T-Mobile Data Breach Settlement
c/o Kroll Settlement Administration LLC
P.O. Box 225391
New York, NY 10150-5391
It must be postmarked no later than January 23, 2023. If submitting a claim form online, the deadline is 11:59 p.m. PST on January 23, 2023.
Visit the settlement website for more information.
