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AT&T data breach settlement

From Settlements, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the class action settlement over the AT&T data breach. For every settlement, see Settlements.

Yes. The AT&T data breach settlement is real: a $177 million class action settlement in federal court, Northern District of Texas, run by Kroll Settlement Administration. The claim deadline, 18 December 2025, has passed and the judge approved the settlement on 2 October 2026. Payments have not been sent yet.

The administrator's October 30, 2026 update says the court granted final approval on October 2, 2026, payments have not been issued, and payments are not expected in 2026.

Is it real?

Yes. The case is In re: AT&T Inc. Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, case number Civil Action No. 3:24-cv-00757 (MDL Docket No. 3:24-md-03114), in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The court appointed Kroll Settlement Administration to run it, and its only official site is telecomdatasettlement.com.

How the real notice reached people. Email notices came from [email protected] (FAQ 1); Kroll began sending email notice on August 4, 2025 to 79,068,722 addresses, and postcard notice went to 17,906,765 records; a reminder email went out from November 21, 2025. Each notice carried a Class Member ID (the site has a 'Resend Class Member ID' form). The FAQ says to call (833) 890-4930 if unsure whether an email is related to the settlement. The site calls itself 'the only authorized website for this case', and says you do not need to contact them now. Later mail: Notices of Deficient Claim Form and Notices of Denial; the administrator says not to send documents by email or the Contact Us form.

To tell a real message from a scam:

  1. The only official site is telecomdatasettlement.com.Type it into your browser yourself rather than tapping a link. Claim pages on news and lawyer-advertising sites, and lookalike addresses, are not the administrator.
  2. Filing costs nothing.No real settlement charges a fee to file a claim or to release a payment. Anyone asking for one is running a scam.
  3. Nobody needs your passwords.The administrator never asks for your AT&T password, your online banking login or a code texted to you. Payment details go only into the claim form on telecomdatasettlement.com.
  4. Check by phone.If you aren’t sure a message is real, call the administrator on (833) 890-4930, the number on telecomdatasettlement.com, not one in the message.
  5. Claims have closed.The deadline was 18 December 2025. A message now urging you to file a new claim, or to pay or “verify” your bank details to receive money, is a warning sign. Check on telecomdatasettlement.com instead.

Who qualifies

AT&T 1 class: all living persons in the United States whose data elements were included in the AT&T 1 Data Incident announced on March 30, 2024. AT&T 2 class: AT&T account owners or line or end users whose call and text record data was involved in the AT&T 2 (Snowflake) Data Incident announced on July 12, 2024. People in both are Overlap Settlement Class Members and can claim in both.

Size: 99,763,302 Settlement Class Member Records used for notice (57,002,042 AT&T 1 only, 36,478,626 AT&T 2 only, 6,282,634 in both), per the court's final approval order.

It covers people in the United States only. If you live elsewhere, you are not part of it, whatever a message says.

There are 2 groups, each with its own payments:

  • AT&T 1 Settlement Class ($149 million fund). Living persons in the US whose data was in the AT&T 1 Data Incident announced March 30, 2024.
  • AT&T 2 Settlement Class ($28 million fund). AT&T account owners or line or end users whose data was in the AT&T 2 (Snowflake) Data Incident announced July 12, 2024.

How much

The total settlement is $177 million ($149 million for the AT&T 1 Settlement Class and $28 million for the AT&T 2 Settlement Class). What each person can claim:

BenefitAmountNotes
Documented losses, AT&T 1up to $5,000losses in 2019 or later, fairly traceable to AT&T 1; receipts or other documents not self-prepared
Documented losses, AT&T 2up to $2,500losses on or after April 14, 2024, fairly traceable to AT&T 2
Tier 1 cash payment (AT&T 1, SSN exposed)pro rata share; five times a Tier 2 paymentper-person amount not published by the administrator
Tier 2 cash payment (AT&T 1, no SSN)pro rata share of the AT&T 1 Net Settlement Fundper-person amount not published by the administrator
Tier 3 cash payment (AT&T 2 account owners)pro rata share of the AT&T 2 Net Settlement Fundper-person amount not published by the administrator
  • AT&T 1 Settlement Class ($149 million fund): Documented Loss Cash Payment: up to $5,000 for losses in 2019 or later fairly traceable to AT&T 1, with documentation; OR Tier 1 Cash Payment (Social Security number was exposed): pro rata share of the AT&T 1 Net Settlement Fund, five times a Tier 2 payment; OR Tier 2 Cash Payment (data exposed but not SSN): pro rata share of the AT&T 1 Net Settlement Fund.
  • AT&T 2 Settlement Class ($28 million fund): Documented Loss Cash Payment: up to $2,500 for losses on or after April 14, 2024 fairly traceable to AT&T 2, with documentation (account owners can claim for their line or end users); OR Tier 3 Cash Payment (account owners only): pro rata share of the AT&T 2 Net Settlement Fund.

An amount marked estimated or pro rata changes with the number of valid claims: more claims, smaller shares. Losses need proof, such as receipts or bank statements.

Deadline and payout

  • Claim deadline: (passed). Extended by court order; the court's final approval order says the claim deadline was moved to December 18, 2025 (an earlier schedule had a November 2025 date).
  • Opt-out and objection deadline: .
  • Final approval hearing: .
  • Final approval granted: .

Payout. No payment date published. Payments wait until the settlement becomes effective, after the time to appeal ends and any post-judgment motions or appeals are resolved; the administrator says payments are not expected to be issued in 2026.

The administrator: “Payments are not expected to be issued in 2026.”

Filing and payment

  1. Claims can no longer be submitted (the deadline was December 18, 2025).
  2. If you filed a valid claim you do not need to do anything; updates will be posted at telecomdatasettlement.com.
  3. If you got a Notice of Denial for unverified class membership, use the unique response form linked in that notice and mail it postmarked within 22 days of the notice date.

Official site: telecomdatasettlement.com. Phone: (833) 890-4930. Mail: AT&T Data Incident Settlement, c/o Kroll Settlement Administration LLC, P.O. Box 5324, New York, NY 10150-5324.

The breach, and what to do today

Two separate incidents settled together. AT&T 1: on March 30, 2024 AT&T announced that AT&T-specific fields were in a data set released on the dark web (the court order says the systems were compromised sometime in 2019 and the data appeared on the dark web on or before August 20, 2021). AT&T 2: on July 12, 2024 AT&T announced that call and text record data had been illegally downloaded from an AT&T workspace on a third-party cloud platform hosted by Snowflake, Inc.

What was exposed: AT&T 1: some combination of names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, account passcodes, billing account numbers, and Social Security numbers; AT&T 2: telephone numbers of current and former customers, the numbers they interacted with, counts of those interactions, aggregate call durations for a day or month, and for a small subset, cell site identification numbers.

HARD’s page on the breach: AT&T data breach, with what leaked and what each kind of data lets criminals do.

A settlement pays for what already happened. The data is still out there, so do these now:

  1. Freeze your credit.In the US it’s free at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, and no one can open credit in your name while it’s on. Lift it for a day when you apply for credit yourself.
  2. Get an IRS Identity Protection PIN.It stops anyone filing a tax return in your name with your Social Security number. Request one at irs.gov/ippin.
  3. Watch your statements.Look for small charges you don’t recognise and report them to your bank. Ask for a new card if a full card number leaked.
  4. Put a PIN on your phone account.Ask your mobile provider for a port-out PIN or number lock, so no one can move your number to their SIM.
  5. Change the password and the answers.On AT&T and anywhere you reused them. Treat security answers like extra passwords.
  6. Distrust messages about AT&T and this settlement.Breach data is used to make scam messages personal enough to believe, for years afterwards. Go to the company or the official site yourself.

To see which other breaches your email address is in, search it on Have I Been Pwned, then read Breaches.

Not published yet

The administrator and the court had not published these when HARD checked on 7 November 2026, so this page doesn’t guess:

  • How much each person’s cash payment will be. It depends on how many people claim.
  • When payments will be sent.

Questions

Is the AT&T data breach settlement legit?

Yes. It is In re: AT&T Inc. Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, case Civil Action No. 3:24-cv-00757 (MDL Docket No. 3:24-md-03114), in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Kroll Settlement Administration runs it for the court, and the only official site is telecomdatasettlement.com.

Who qualifies for the AT&T settlement?

AT&T 1 class: all living persons in the United States whose data elements were included in the AT&T 1 Data Incident announced on March 30, 2024. AT&T 2 class: AT&T account owners or line or end users whose call and text record data was involved in the AT&T 2 (Snowflake) Data Incident announced on July 12, 2024. People in both are Overlap Settlement Class Members and can claim in both.

How much will I get from the AT&T settlement?

Up to up to $5,000 for losses you can prove. The total settlement is $177 million ($149 million for the AT&T 1 Settlement Class and $28 million for the AT&T 2 Settlement Class). Final amounts depend on how many valid claims there are.

What is the deadline for the AT&T settlement?

The claim deadline was 18 December 2025. It has passed.

When will the AT&T settlement pay out?

No payment date published. Payments wait until the settlement becomes effective, after the time to appeal ends and any post-judgment motions or appeals are resolved; the administrator says payments are not expected to be issued in 2026.

Other settlements: California Casualty, Finastra, Telmate, Covenant Health, AMCA, DaVita, and the rest in Settlements.

Sources

Checked on 7 November 2026. HARD is not part of the case and doesn’t take claims.

  1. AT&T Data Incident Settlement: home page (October 30, 2026 update, important dates), Kroll Settlement Administration, read 7 Nov 2026: final approval Oct 2, 2026; no payments in 2026; deadlines; contact.
  2. AT&T Data Incident Settlement: FAQ, Kroll Settlement Administration, read 7 Nov 2026: email sender domain, benefits, deficiency and denial notices.
  3. Memorandum Opinion and Order granting final approval (ECF 534, filed 10/02/26), US District Court, N.D. Texas (Senior Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater), posted by Kroll, read 7 Nov 2026: $149M/$28M split, notice numbers, 4,918,073 claims, $59M fees, cy pres modification.