Millions of AT&T customers could be eligible for compensation of up to $7,500 each after the telecoms giant was hit by a pair of severe data breaches in 2024.
On March 30 last year, the details of as many as 73 million current and former account holders were leaked in a hacking incident. Their private information, including birth dates and Social Security numbers but not the content of their messages, was stolen and shared in a dataset on the dark web.
Then, in a second strike the following July 12, hackers managed to download massive amounts of AT&T data from a third-party cloud platform.
Call records and texts belonging to “nearly all” of AT&T’s 109 million wireless customers were breached, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Lawsuits ensued across the country in both state and federal courts.
On August 4, Kroll Settlement Administration announced that AT&T had agreed to a settlement fund in federal court. For the first breach, a $149 million all-cash fund was established to settle the claims and, for the second, a $28 million all-cash payment was made, making for a $177 million total payout.
According to the settlement website, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas is set to have a final approval hearing on January 15 2026.
Meanwhile, any AT&T customers have until December 18 to file and claim and until November 17 to opt-out.
How do I submit a claim?
Those who had their data comprised in the first hack are eligible for up to $5,000 and can make claims for “payment for losses that occurred in 2019, or later,” according to the website.
People hit by the second breach are eligible for up to $2,500 “for losses that occurred on or after April 14, 2024.”
To receive the payment, customers must provide documentation showing that the losses they incurred are “fairly traceable” to the AT&T data breaches.
Anyone unlucky enough caught up in both hacks could receive $7,500 in total and become what the administrator’s refer to as an “overlap settlement class member.”
With the deadline to claim extended by a month from its original date of November 18, customers now have more time to file a claim, which they can do using their Class Member ID from their settlement notice via the login screen here.
If successful, they are likely to receive their compensation in the new year.
“Please be patient,” the settlement claim site advises, advising anyone unsure of their eligibility to call the following number with inquiries: (833) 890-4930.
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