Online Payday Lenders Hit with Class Action Lawsuit

A federal class action lawsuit warns consumers to stay away from Internet payday lenders EDebitPay and Platinum Online Group, which allegedly take information from loan applicants and use it to forge checks on behalf of the applicants without their knowledge or consent.

According to the class action lawsuit, EDebitPay and Platinum Online Group “operate a scam where they lure people into applying for payday loans on Internet websites. Defendants take the information they gather from the payday loan applications — including the applicants’ banking information — and use this information to forge checks on behalf of the applicants. These checks are fakes; they are created without the applicants’ knowledge or consent. These checks supposedly pay for Defendants’ coupon service, though no applicant ever agreed to buy such services…The money is transferred from the applicants’ checking accounts to Defendants’ account before the applicants realize that the forged checks have been drawn or that withdrawals have been made. Defendants have performed this scam thousands of times, and robbed people in need of their remaining money.”

The online payday lender class action lawsuit is seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction restraining EDebitPay and Platinum Online Group from drafting or depositing remotely created checks without the payor’s express clear authorization and consent. It is also asking the Court to award actual damages and restitution of the money wrongfully withdrawn from Class Members’ checking accounts.

A copy of the EDebitPay and Platinum Online Group Class Action Lawsuit can be read here.

The case is Deborah Deffenbaugh v. EDebitPay, LLC and Platinum Online Group, LLC, Case No. 11-cv-3024, United States District Court, Northern District of California.