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Bank of America (BoA) owes customers thousands of dollars after bungling its delivery and management of unemployment insurance benefits during the pandemic, a new class action lawsuit alleges.
The latest class action lawsuit, filed in California on April 20, is one of at least three class action lawsuits the bank is facing over its management of California state unemployment insurance payments.
Lead Plaintiffs Jonathan Smith and Alex Yuan allege that the bank knowingly sent out insecure debit cards that use outdated strip technology that can easily be hacked, did not manage subsequent hacks well, and caused customers to lose thousands of dollars – on top of causing stress and anxiety at the height of the pandemic.
Smith, a Los Angeles resident, says that the first time he tried to use his BoA issued card at one of the bank’s ATMs his card displayed a negative balance, despite him having collected unemployment insurance without spending any of it.
He quickly realized his account had been hacked and drained of $900, the class action lawsuit claims. When he notified the bank, he was given a $900 credit and an investigation concluded he had been hacked. However, a month later the bank reversed the credit without notifying Smith and froze his account, according to the claim.
When Smith tried to follow up with the bank, he was subjected to long wait times and dropped calls, the class action states.
On the rare occasion Smith managed to get into contact with a customer service representative, they behaved discourteously toward him and accused him of lying about his circumstances, according to the class action lawsuit.
“During that period, Smith suffered severe stress and anxiety wondering how he would be able to pay for basic necessities, including, but not limited to, rent, groceries, and therapy. Smith was ultimately forced to borrow money from friends and family to cover said costs.”
Yuan, a San Jose local, had a similar experience, according to the class action, having his BoA issued card hacked twice – to a total loss of $1,800, the class action lawsuit states. When Yuan contacted Bank of America, his account was credited $1,800, however, much like Smith, the credit was reversed. While Yuan was dealing with the situation, he was hacked again bringing the fraudulent withdrawals to $2,700.
Despite numerous attempts to contact the bank to retrieve the benefits owed to him, Yuan remains out of pocket several thousands of dollars, the class action states.
According to the class action lawsuit, thousands of dollars of unemployment insurance benefits have been stolen from people left unemployed during the pandemic through unauthorized transactions – including ATM withdrawals and unauthorized purchases on food delivery apps.
At the heart of the class action lawsuit is BoA’s alleged knowing use of old and easily hackable debit cards. The bank’s decision not to issue unemployment benefit cards with chips technology was “catastrophic” and led to widespread hacks that caused the bank to freeze the accounts of approximately 350,000 unemployment California residents, the class action lawsuits claims.
“With these actions, Bank of America has effectively deprived EDD cardholders of unemployment insurance benefits to which they are lawfully entitled and on which they heavily rely. Notably, many EDD cardholders remain unable to access their unemployment insurance benefits to date – months after Bank of America first froze their accounts.”
Smith and Yuan want to represent a Class of people through three subclasses: the Declaratory and Injunctive Relief subclass, the Access Denial subclass, and the Regulation-E subclass. They are suing for negligence, breach of contract, and violation of California’s privacy and business laws.
They are seeking certification of the Class, restitution, injunctive relief, damages, legal costs, and a jury trial.
Did you receive a Bank of America debit card to collect your unemployment insurance benefits? Let us know in the comments section!
Smith and Yuan are represented by Daniel L. Warshaw, Bobby Pouya, and Sophie R. Sedaghat of Pearson, Simon & Warshaw, LLP, and Raymond P. Boucher of Boucher LLP.
The Bank of America Debit Card Hack Class Action Lawsuit is Smith, et al. v. Bank Of America, N.A., et al., Case No. 2:21-cv-03385, in the U.S. District Court Central District of California.
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72 thoughts onBank of America Bungles Handling of Unemployment Benefits, Class Action Alleges
Yes I have been extremely frustrated , anxiety ridden and financially crushed by the BOA way of handling things. I was hacked for close to $10000.00 of which I only got paid back $4000.00. The only claim I called in was split into two different days because of a posting cut off time, they told me to call back tomorrow and finish submitting the other half of the claim, I did that, and they never paid me for the very same claim at the very same merchants that they paid me for. I called and called and waited and finally got a gal on the phone who said after about an hour that she got it to go through, and I though alll would be fixed, WRONG. They said after another dozen calls that they weren’t going to pay the second half of the claim because of some technical issues in the system which has nothing to do with my account getting robbed.
I made more calls and got a rep on the phone who told me there were $4000.00 more in funds that I should have gotten paid and didn’t , I thought my prayers were answered, he was putting in the required submissions to get me my funds, WRONG, I have never heard back since, depression anxiety disbelief, night terrors and more. I Fkn hate them. how dare they just fluff off desperate people any peoples. In a crisis no less. They need to pay damages and more.
Yeah on top of all the anxieties caused by their failure to resolve, they never once sent ,me any follow up documents or anything. They are getting paid to screw peoples.
I wish to join class action lawsuits against Bank of America how do I sign up I’ve lost thousands to my EDD card and have been now homeless because of this
Had my identity stolen and now can’t file for unemployment without an investigation into the matter. Problem is, there isn’t anyone in the fraud department to conduct an investigation. Been unemployed for 5 months with no payment. If anyone can assist, I need the help!
Yes please add me. My card has also been frozen. There was no fraudulent activity on my account. My apartment number was wrong. I fixed it on the Edd site. My profile was updated to reflect the change yet I am still frozen since 3/26 with no end in site.
Yes add me. I’ve wrote the FDIC and more in reference to this.
yes please add me to your class action b of a stole over $7,000 account froze since aug
two different letters stating my account was credited have yet to receive any money back that they stole from me.all I get is a run aroundwhen I contact them
My account was hacked! Please add me too
Add me. My account is as hacked as well
I’ve been waiting since October for boa to fix this very same problem but in my case I’m out of $17,145.06 need to join this lawsuit as well can some one inbox me at jlagone83@gmail.com plz thnx
My account was hacked as well.
I have one and someone had racked up about $400 in my unemployment benefits. Also my daughter is fighting to get her unemployment back. Where someone not only drained her unemployment benifits but changed her security password and BOA acted as though she was no who she said she was. As well as kept her on hold for over 4 hours.