back to article And it's go, go, go for class-action lawsuits against Equifax after 148m personal records spilled in that mega-hack

A US judge has given the go-ahead for a set of consolidated lawsuits against credit agency Equifax regarding its 2017 mega-hack. In a series of orders handed down in a Georgia federal district court on Monday, the evocatively named Judge Thomas Thrash Jr said that legal challenges from payment card issuers and ordinary …

  1. Version 1.0 Silver badge

    But whose data was lost?

    To find out if your data was hacked you have to go to the equifaxsecurity2017.com site, enter your name and the last 6 digits of your 9 digit social security number ... does anyone trust these idiots that much? I don't know anyone who's been notified by Equifax that their data was stolen.

    1. robidy

      Re: But whose data was lost?

      In the UK that's most of you NI* Number ha ha.

      Wonder if the three...I mean millions of Brits can join in too?

    2. ma1010
      Mushroom

      Re: But whose data was lost?

      Mine, for one.

      Where do I sign up to join the lawsuit? You folks over the Pond have GDPR, and it's time someone over here was held accountable, even if the only way is private prosecution via lawsuits. (Not that I wouldn't be happy to see GDPR-like legislation here.)

      1. JohnnyLaw

        Re: But whose data was lost?

        Do what we are doing and file a small claims case against them. Here in Texas you can even ask for a 6 member jury. I plan to start out asking them (hypothetically, of course) how much they would sell their unchangeable digits and other confidential information for. Then I plan on putting them in my shoes and tell them the defendants GAVE it to hackers who have likely created a database with it on some dark servers somewhere.. I expect to get the max judgment ($10k) which is almost double what I could get elsewhere. If you go the class action route, the company would go bankrupt before paying out more than $100 pp.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: But whose data was lost?

      Yeh, and the actual input page is at trustedidpremier.com...

      And wouldn't you know it, if that site gets hacked apparently you're SOL.

      https://trustedidpremier.com/static/terms

      "THIRD PARTY WEBSITES AND SERVICES. This Product may provide, or third parties may provide, links or other access to other websites, services and resources on the Internet and otherwise, including reporting agencies ("Third Party Services "). TrustedID has no control over such Third Party Services and TrustedID is not responsible for and does not endorse such Third Party Services. You further acknowledge and agree that TrustedID shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any information, content, goods or services available on or through any such Third Party Services."

      MMmmmm nice! Provides links from 3rd parties but is magically "not responsible for" 3rd parties and has "no control" over 3rd parties (no control?... by it's own disclaimer, that's _literally_ impossible... literally). So when you use that page, you're likely coming from a bad experience and entering a waiting line for a nightmare.

  2. -tim
    Facepalm

    People or households?

    It is my understanding that it wasn't "148 million personal records" but "148 million household records". If that is the case, it isn't most US, UK and Aussie adults, but close to ALL adults.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: People or households?

      Fact check, the weasel worded guff for investors from Equifax clearly says customers NOT households -

      Https://investor.equifax.com/news-and-events/news/2017/09-07-2017-213000628

      No cigar today but always worth a question.

  3. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    How big a judgement does Equifax have to have against it before it has to mark itself down as a bad credit risk?

    1. JohnnyLaw

      ROFLMAO

      TOUCH`E!!

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    In other NEWS

    BMW dealers gearing up for new car sales to lawyers....

  5. hotdamn

    I cant wait to get my check for $1.92

    1. Eddy Ito

      Don't worry, the lawyers will each get a similar check but with six or seven more zeros.

      1. Michael Strorm Silver badge

        Hence the grittily realistic stock photo accompanying this story, which shows the likely response of a typical law firm to the news.

  6. stuartsmiles

    small claims court option

    apparently they were really upset with people going to the local small claims court as it meant they had to do a seperate case, attend locally, and answer the court papers etc. so that, on a large scale is more of a #legal-ddos on them, court forms online just need to fill them in, story #justsaying, and the money wasn't insignificant per person either. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/business/equifax-hack-small-claims-court.html

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Never gave them my permission

    to have my data in the first place, now everybody has it.

    1. Bearded_Devil
      Devil

      Re: Never gave them my permission

      "...now everybody has it."

      That's actually an interesting cynical argument I can see soon being argued by defense attorneys. If your data is already out there--and, let's be honest, how many people have been hit by PII breaches more than once?--how much more risk of harm are you really under?

      As an analogy: if a ship is irrevocably sinking, how much more damage does drilling one more hole in the hull actually cause?

      1. DCFusor

        Re: Never gave them my permission

        Bad analogy if you profit hugely from a ship building business, which forces people into being customers with no opt out option at all, and point the ship at the iceberg.

        Then drilling the hole, is, as you say, not that big a deal. But see above.

        1. Kreton

          Re: Never gave them my permission

          My wife's email details were leaked and then Equifax suggested they would monitor dubious transactions for a year after, but wanted all the usual personal information, name date of birth, name of the cat's grandfather etc. Oh yeah after leaking the email then give them lots more to leak?

          My credit card showed £7,000 bogus transactions from Australia so perhaps that was due to the Equifax leak?

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Never gave them my permission

            That was my reaction too when I read their letter! Last people I would want to trust with personal info. This far I haven't noticed any thefts from my cards.

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