Photo: Mircea Moira (Shutterstock)
You may have recently received an email from the company EpiqPay, a payment distribution service, about the recent Zoom settlement and wondered if it’s legit or a scam: As reported by Snopes, the fact-checking website, the email is legitimate and is trying to send payments out for the settlement.
What is on the Zoom email?
The email with the subject line “Zoom Video Communications Settlement: Notice of Upcoming Settlement Payment” should come from “noreply@epiqpay.com” and have been sent sometime in late May. It notifies Zoom users who filed claims that they will soon receive a payment method option, and it directs you to the official class-action lawsuit website.
What was the Zoom settlement for?
According to The Guardian, the settlement was about multiple complaints from Zoom users regarding a violation of their privacy and security.
You might remember in the early days of the pandemic when the term “Zoombombing” was trending. To put it simply, uninvited Zoom users would jump into calls and meetings from links that were publicly posted on social media or shared from closed circles and proceeded to disrupt the meeting. How they would disrupt was limited only by creativity. (My journalism cohort of more than 300 graduate students, staff, and professors were Zoombombed by a person obnoxiously pooping who then proceeded to proudly show us their completed work before someone figured out they were not a student and managed to boot them.)
How much can Zoom users get from the settlement?
Zoom agreed to pay $85 million to settle the lawsuit and has agreed to make changes to their policies and practices for a better user experience. For those who filed a claim before the March 5, 2022 deadline, they can expect $25 or 15% of the money paid for a Zoom subscription between March 30, 2016 and July 30, 2021 (whichever is higher).
How can people get paid safely?
The Zoom settlement website says all class members should’ve received an email by May 31 from EpiqPay, which contains a “Claim Payment” link that redirects users to a dashboard that allows them to select their preferred method of payout. Any emails coming from “rewards@tremendous.com” can be safely trusted as legitimate, according to the official settlement website.
