AT&T and T-Mobile change Autopay discount requirements
Two wireless carriers joined Verizon to request a debit card or bank account instead of a credit card for Autopay discounts.
Cover media – Shareable
Current and previous AT&T customers may be eligible for payments from the $177 million settlement related to two data breaches.
On June 20, a US judge granted preliminary approval for a settlement that resolves cases against AT&T over 2019 and 2024 cases.
In July 2024, the company announced that almost every customer’s phone call and text message records would be made public. In March of the same year, AT&T said it was investigating the dataset released on “Dark Web.”
AT&T said in a statement to Reuters it denied allegations that it was “liable for these criminal activities.”
“We have agreed to this settlement to avoid the costs and uncertainties of long-term litigation,” the company added.
Here’s what you need to know about AT&T data breach payments:
How much can I claim from the AT&T settlement?
AT&T has agreed to pay up to $2,500 or $5,000 to customers who suffered a “pretty traceable” loss on the incident, depending on who has affected the customer.
The company will allocate $149 million to those affected by the 2024 violation and $28 million to those affected by the 2019 violation, according to court documents.
After the direct loss payment is made, the remaining funds will be distributed to customers with access to the personal information.
The company told Reuters it expects payments to be issued early next year.
When will you be paid from the AT&T Settlement?
Court documents show that the Settlement Notice Program will begin on August 4th and complete on October 17th.
The deadline for filing the claim form will be listed on November 18th, with a final approval hearing taking place on December 3rd.
What happened with the AT&T violation?
In its 2024 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company learned that customer data was illegally downloaded from its third-party cloud platform AT&T Workspace in April.
AT&T revealed that the call log was copied from the workspace on the Snowflake Cloud Platform.
An analysis of the incident released in March by the company suggests that around 7.6 million account holders at the time and 65.4 million former account holders posted information on “Dark Web.”
Information including address, social security number and passcode appeared to have been around for before 2019, the BBC reported at the time of its announcement.
Contributions: Gabe Hauari, USA Today; Reuters
