Equifax Lawsuit

[harllee]

Has anyone joined any of the class action lawsuits against Equifax? My identity was stolen and used to file a Social Security claim in my name and change the bank my SS payment is being sent to. I have spent many hours at the local SS office and on the phone with national SS and it is still not fixed. I am not receiving my SS payments and I am not sure when it will be fixed. The folks at SS say they are overwhelmed with the number of stolen identity claims and "just can't get to them all."

The last person I spoke to at SS blamed the Equifax hack and said all these identity theft problems started right after the Equifax hack. I do think my personal info was stolen through the Equifax hack because the thief used an old address and that was the address Equifax had for me.

I am MAD and I want to sue Equifax. Any advice?

 

[Chuckanut]

I am waiting for Congress to take some action to protect our rights in this matter.

Zzzzzzzzz........ Wake when it does, but no later than 2078.

 

[GrayHare]

Class actions lawsuits rarely yield much restitution for each of the wronged individuals. If you actual losses are significant, you might want to take action independent of the class.

 

[Sunset]

I've been in many class action lawsuits, most times my side won, and I got about $10. Only one was a "big" reward and it was approximately $68

The law firms in most cases got many millions of dollars.

I think most folks would do better in small claims court, file for $3,000 or whatever the limit is to recover your costs. The other side will pay lawyers about $1,500/hr to defend it, or decide to settle as a confidential settlement would be cheaper than the lawyers lunch budget.

 

[Masquernom]

Equifax leaked my information also. I got hit with two small charges on the debit card Equifax had on file. As soon as I saw the charges, my credit union issued me a new card. The credit union refunded the charges. I think is was about $70 total for the two charges. I'm thankful it wasn't for a lot more....

One day I'll learn to not use a debit card online. I hope....

 

[prototype]

What a mess, I feel for you. Hard for me to give me advice on a separate suit against EquiHacked...oops I mean Equifax. Not sure how many months or total amount of $'s lost. Seems like Small Claims is the easiest, cheapest way to go (still a hassle), and I'm not sure you could get all your losses back given the Max $ amounts Small Claims courts tend to have.

What is concerning to me is you seem to state the deposits are still going to somebody's else bank account. I'm at loss why the SSA can't or won't change the deposits to your bank account (routing and account numbers) to stop the monthly bleeding. That doesn't seem like it would be too hard for them especially since it sounds like you have actually been at a SSA office one or more times where you could prove your identity face to face with someone.

 

[Sunset]

What a mess, I feel for you. Hard for me to give me advice on a separate suit against EquiHacked...oops I mean Equifax. Not sure how many months or total amount of $'s lost. Seems like Small Claims is the easiest, cheapest way to go (still a hassle), and I'm not sure you could get all your losses back given the Max $ amounts Small Claims courts tend to have.

What is concerning to me is you seem to state the deposits are still going to somebody's else bank account. I'm at loss why the SSA can't or won't change the deposits to your bank account (routing and account numbers) to stop the monthly bleeding. That doesn't seem like it would be too hard for them especially since it sounds like you have actually been at a SSA office one or more times where you could prove your identity face to face with someone.

In my experience, often find gov't workers don't view the money from the gov't the same way they would view their own money being lost or wasted.

 

[harllee]

OP here, I think I will wait and see how much time and money I will lose and then look into small claims court. I guess the hard thing is to prove that the thief got my personal info from the Equifax hack rather than some other hack.

Regarding SS, they tell me that my payments have been stopped so I guess the thief is no longer getting them but they had already got around $5000, a lump sum of $4000 and my monthly payment of $1000 spousal. I think the problem now is getting my payments into my checking account started again. It is complicated by the fact I was getting spousal payments and deferring my own. I sure am glad I have other money to live on in the meantime.