Customers who may have been affected by a pair of AT&T data breaches have until the middle of December to collect up to $7,500 as part of a class-action settlement.

Millions of AT&T customers’ personal information was exposed in two data breaches that were not disclosed until 2024, leading to a combined settlement in court worth $177 million. Although AT&T agreed to settle in the case, the company denied wrongdoing at the time.

The court established a deadline to submit a settlement claim of Dec. 18, meaning that customers have roughly 10 days to try to collect, according to the settlement website established for affected customers. A judge will still have to approve the claims early next year.

What Can People Do to Collect?

The only way for eligible customers to receive a portion of the settlement is to submit a claim form, which can be done through the settlement website, administered by Kroll Settlement Administration.

The form must be submitted online or sent through the mail and postmarked on or before Dec. 18.

Previous deadlines to opt out of the class-action settlement have already expired. Customers who take no action will not “receive any settlement class member benefits from this class action settlement,” according to Kroll.

“If the settlement becomes final, you will give up your rights to sue defendants (or any released parties) separately for claims relating to the actions or to continue to pursue any such claims you have already filed,” it stated.

How Much Could Customers Receive?

The settlement’s cash funds total $177 million to pay those affected by both of these breaches, which divvies up to $149 million for the first “settlement class” and another $28 million for the second, per a preliminary approval order filed in June.

According to the settlement site, consumers affected by the first breach may be eligible for up to $5,000. Those affected by the second breach may be eligible for up to $2,500. It is also possible to be an “overlap settlement class member,” which would mean that you may be eligible for payments from both of these funds.

After payments are made for direct losses, the remaining funds will be distributed to customers whose personal information was accessed.

A customer has to show documented losses to receive the full amount. People without documented losses will be paid a pro-rated amount based on the total number of settlement claims, as well as costs related to attorneys’ fees, the website states.

To find out more information, customers can visit the website. If customers are unsure and have questions, they are advised to call 1-833-890-4930 for more information.

What Happened?

The deal resolves claims over data breaches that AT&T announced in March and July last year. Depending on which breach is involved, AT&T has agreed to pay up to $2,500 or $5,000 to customers who suffered losses that are “fairly traceable” to the incidents.

In March 2024, AT&T said it was investigating a data set released on the dark web and said its preliminary analysis showed that it affected about 7.6 million current account holders and 65.4 million former account holders. The company said the data set appeared to be from 2019 or earlier.

In July 2024, the company said a breach resulted in the illegal downloading of about 109 million customer records at the U.S. wireless company.

AT&T disclosed that its call logs were copied from its workspace on a Snowflake cloud platform covering about six months of customer call and text data from 2022 from nearly all its customers. AT&T said at the time that the data did not contain the content of calls or texts or personal information such as Social Security numbers.

The second breach involved call and text records of nearly all AT&T customers from May through October of 2022, as well as a small subset from Jan. 2, 2023, the company said in July 2024.

In the second breach, AT&T said it learned that data were “illegally downloaded“ from its workspace ”on a third-party cloud platform” in April 2024 and began notifying its customers in July that year.

The settlement website’s questions and answers section states that people who are claiming a portion of the funds will have to either note whether they were victims of the breach described in the March 2024 announcement or the breach described in the July 2024 announcement.

What Has AT&T Said?

The company has denied any wrongdoing in connection with the data breaches and said the settlement was reached to end any prolonged litigation.

“We have agreed to this settlement to avoid the expense and uncertainty of protracted litigation,” the telecommunications giant told media outlets last month.

It stated that the firm is still “committed to protecting ... customers’ data and ensuring their continued trust in [AT&T].”

The Epoch Times reached out to AT&T for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.