Christina Spicer  |  October 13, 2015

Category: Consumer News

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T-Mobile, Experian class action lawsuitLast week, another class action lawsuit was filed against T-Mobile USA Inc. and Experian North America Inc. over a data breach that potentially affected 15 million people.

Lead plaintiff Jennifer Leitner alleges that the companies fail to protect the personal information of millions of customers and responded inappropriately by offering limited credit monitoring services.

“Unlike credit card and bank account numbers, the compromised personal data does not expire,” Leitner alleges, arguing that limited credit monitoring services is not enough to protect hacked consumers from harm. “Plaintiff cannot change her Social Security number or her driver’s license number as a preventative measure, and she is now subject to the misappropriation of her personal data for years to come.”

On Oct. 1, T-Mobile announced that its customers’ data was lost in a hack on databases belonging to Experian North America Inc., which conducts credit checks for T-Mobile USA Inc. According to T-Mobile, customers’ names, addresses and dates of birth, encrypted Social Security and driver’s license numbers may have been lost to hackers when they bypassed encryptions in the Experian system.

According to the data hack class action lawsuit, T-Mobile offered two years of credit monitoring to its customers. Leitner argues that two years of credit monitoring is not enough to protect hacked consumers from harm. Leitner says that experts have determined that identity theft victims face significant harm for five to 10 years after a breach.

Leitner also alleges that she had determined that the hack had affected her and that T-Mobile and Experian failed to notify her that she was affected by the breach. The plaintiff also argued that it was not appropriate for T-Mobile to use Experian to monitor consumers’ credit in response to the breach since the hackers had breached Experien’s systems in the first place.

“Defendants are effectively asking affected persons to choose to trust in the very entities that placed them in this predicament: T-Mobile and Experian,” Leitner alleges in the data breach class action lawsuit. “That choice is no choice at all,” she concluded.

This class action joins another filed over the data breach earlier this month. In the T-Mobile data hack class action lawsuit, lead plaintiffs Brendan Moore and Matthew DeVito allege that Experian and T-Mobile were negligent in their duty to protect the confidential information of their customers. The plaintiffs filed their data hack class action lawsuit in Illinois federal court on Oct. 2 but abruptly dismissed their claims four days later.

By filing the data hack class action lawsuit in California, Leitner seeks to represent both a nationwide Class as well as a Class of customers from her home state as an alternative. Leitner alleges that Experian both negligently and willfully violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act and filed various state law claims against both defendants.

Additionally, on Thursday of last week, consumer groups asked the Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to determine whether the T-Mobile/Experian data breach affected all 200 million people whose information is held by Experian.

Leitner is represented by Gillian L. Wade of Milstein Adelman LLP, Bryan L. Clobes, Kelly Tucker and Daniel O. Herrera of Cafferty Clobes Meriwether & Sprengel LLP.

The California T-Mobile, Experian Data Hack Class Action Lawsuit is Leitner v. Experian Information Solution Inc., et al., Case No. 8:15-cv-01620, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

UPDATE: January 2019, the Experian data breach class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.

 

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18 thoughts onAnother Class Action Filed Against T-Mobile, Experian Over Hack

  1. Russ Brantmyer says:

    MY COMPANY WAS CHARGED THUR T Mobile BACK IN 2019 FOR A MONTHLY BILL OF $17,000,00 FROM CALLS THAT WERE CREATED IN South Africa FROM THREE OR FOUR DIFFERENT NUMBERS FROM THERE. They SAID NO FRAUD. i TRIED TO MAKE A POLICE REPORT AND THEY SAID i HAD TO GET A FRAUD AFFIDAVED FORM FROM T Mobile FIRST SO THAT IT COULD BE INVESTACTED. THIS POINT i HAVE A CHARGE OFF ON MY CREDIT WHICH CAUESD MY SCORE TO Blumet WITH NO RELIFE IN SIGHT. please advise if someone can help. I have all documentation of all this.

  2. Stacey says:

    I was compromised due to the data breach where money was stolen from my bank account. How can I join the class action lawsuit against T Mobile?

  3. Shamika Holt says:

    My career license could be at risk l. If someone got ahold of my personal info.

  4. Dede says:

    Hi..Unfortunately, I too was a victim of this T-Mobile – Experian data breach. I havent signed up for the Free Premium 2yr credit monitoring service yet because I wasnt going to use the original company offered…its Experian?? Seriously a slap in the face! I was buying a new phone on the Jump on Demand program, and Ive been with T-Mobile almost 20yrs, back when it was VoiceStream. My bill is pd automatically each month, so Ive never had a late pymt & Im a Mary Kay customer. The salesperson should have been able to c all of this basic info on the screen, and all he should of done was check my id. Instead-he didnt activate my phone like he said he was doing,and I also ended up with a lemon-Samsung Galaxy S6 that gets hot and that new fast charging cable got so hot it burned me a few times..had to stop using it!!! I feel violated..I read in October that the information had already been for sale on the Deep Web! Great ..And that it would affect our credit for at least 15yrs T-Mobile did offer another companys credit monitoring service, but even if it says in fine print that you waive your right to sue .. you can still sue! I havent joined a Class Action Lawsuit, but I plan to & Ill be asking the lawyers 1st thing. Good luck to everyone

  5. james says:

    this could affect your other credit reports i called experian for a credit freeze until this blows over the lady acted like i was the one who breach it. then she said that i needed a police report to get a credit freeze. I also asked for reports from the other credit guys she said that was never going to happen. I told her if someone has your info from one credit then they would be able to get the others. then she hung up on me.

  6. josh says:

    I too am affected by this and want to know the best way to get in the lawsuit I know 2 years of free service isn’t near adequate for my whole life being exposed like this could someone please give me advice on how to further get involved with the lawsuit thank you

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