Ashley Milano  |  January 5, 2017

Category: Consumer News

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capital-oneCapital One Bank NA is facing a proposed class action lawsuit alleging the financial institution violates consumers’ right to privacy by pulling credit reports without consent.

San Diego plaintiff Freshta Nayab brings this class action lawsuit against Capital One claiming the bank acquired her credit information through an unauthorized inquiry of her consumer report – a violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) expressly provides that “there is a need to insure consumer reporting agencies exercise their grave responsibilities with fairness, impartiality and a respect for consumer’s right to privacy.”

In enacting the FCRA, Congress specifically sought to protect consumers from invasions of privacy and created restrictions on access to consumers’ sensitive financial information in their credit reports.

According to the complaint, on June 20, 2016, upon review of her Experian credit report, Nayab discovered that Capital One submitted numerous unauthorized credit report inquiries to the credit reporting agency, causing her score to drop.

These actions directly impacted Nayab’s credit availability and finances, the lawsuit states.

Furthermore, Nayab says she never conducted business with Capital One, nor incurred any additional financial obligations to the company.

FCRA law delineates that the only permissible uses of, or access to, consumer credit reports is “to use the information in connection with a credit transaction involving the consumer on whom the information is to be furnished and involving the extension of credit to, or review or collection of an account of, the consumer.”

Nayab goes on to allege that she and other potential Class Members could be at even more risk if there is a data breach on Capital One’s computer systems, since financial institutions like Capital One are frequent targets of cybercriminals.

“[Nayab] suffered an invasion of a legally protected interest when Defendant accessed her highly confidential personal information on her credit report at a time when Defendant had no right to do so, an invasion of Plaintiff’s right to privacy,” the class action states.

Nayab is seeking to represent two FCRA classes. The first FCRA class is defined as “all persons with addresses within the United States whose consumer credit report from any of these three major credit agencies (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax) reflects an unauthorized consumer credit report inquiry by [Capital One] within the past two years.”

The second FCRA class seeks to similarly represent U.S. consumers who were affected by an unauthorized credit report inquire by Capital One within the past five years.

The proposed class action lawsuit seeks recovery of actual and statutory damages, and Nayab has no intent to request any recovery for personal injury and related claims. It also asks for an injunctive relief that requires Capital One to refrain from further impermissible consumer credit pulls in compliance with the FCRA.

Under the FCRA, obtaining a credit report without a permissible purpose or under false pretenses can result in monetary penalties of up to $1,000 per willful violation.

Nayab is represented by Alex Asil Mashiri of Mashiri Law Firm and Tamim Jami of The Jami Law Firm PC.

The Capital One Credit Report Class Action Lawsuit is Freshta Nayab v. Capital One Bank NA, Case No. 3:16-cv-03111-CAB-NLS, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

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15 thoughts onCapital One Class Action Alleges Credit Reports Pulled Without Consent

  1. Mary Lalonde says:

    Capital one has been pulling and monitoring my credit for years and I don’t have any accounts with them. I told credit agencies but they said I have to call them. I called and got automated system. I put my info in and they couldn’t find me. This was in 2012. Then I reported to FTC and I was reporting identity theft and fraud. I have been fighting them for ever until I found who was stealing my information. My ex husband divorced in 1994. So I called again and put his info on and it gave me everything. Credit card car loans. So I called and spoke to managers and they said I’m not on the card. I argued with them about ” how can you inquiries and monitor my credit if I’m not even in the account” I told them it was fraud. They told me to take it up with ex. I told them I will get lawyer. That was so long ago. And they are still doing it.

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