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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Lead Plaintiffs Jonathan Smith and Alex Yuan allege that the bank knowingly sent out insecure debit cards that use outdated strip technology that can easily be hacked, did not manage subsequent hacks well, and caused customers to lose thousands of dollars – on top of causing stress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
Bank of america has put me through he’ll my edd benefits were stolen and my case has been pending for 2 years now. When I filed my claim boa closed my account blamed edd but edd denied they were the ones who did it. They made boa reopen my account. They sent me a denial letter dated the next day of the date I first filed my claim. Meaning they never even looked into my claim at all. After I reported it to edd they made boa reopen my account and boa opened it sending me a new debit card with a chip that when I tried to activate it I couldn’t because they froze my account said for Me to go to a boa with ID and when I did they activated my card that had zero balance.
For two years my claim Is pending and they refuse to give me provisional credit or reimburse me. They won’t help.me when I call. They have me waiting on the phone for hours then they hang up on me. They owe me 20,800.00.
I have done everything to get a resolution but they refuse.
We had $5000 fraudulently transferred out of our EDD BOFA debit card account on October 27, 2021 and we have been fighting with BOFA since then and providing them with every possible proof documents and they still keep saying it’s being investigated. Please help us.
This happened to me as wel.in South Carolina. What advice do you have on what to do to try to get my money back?
I had about $10,000 stolen from my account and of course the pandemic happened I couldn’t go inside I couldn’t talk to anybody nobody would answer the phones I had to cancel the card I had purchases happening that wasn’t me it was a f****** nightmare in the worst time of my life
Same thing here. September 2021 $4,900 was taken out from my Bank of America/edd prepaid account. I disputed and filed claims repeatedly since oct 2021. Bank of America denied my fraud claim many times. Every time I followed up the status of my claim, they said it has been denied and They have to request for a “reconsideration” they called and wait for another 45 to 60 days fir result. These happened five times in my case. Last letter from Bank of America is a denial if my claim and closed my case. In August 2022 I sent Bank of America a demand letter a registered mail sent to their corporate office. My intention to take them to small claims court. Surprisingly someone from Bank of America left a message on my phone twice and the message is for me to call back to a department called “excalation” dept. the message is for me to call the 800 number printed in my prepaid card. So I did called that familiar number, and realized that I was diverted back to the same drawing board. No answer and I had to repeat the process again from the beginning. This is more than a year claim and to get back the money that was stolen from my so called prepaid card. We are retired couple live in social security ever since pandemic. I lost my job at the airlines during pandemic year 2020. We had suffered enough. A mishandling and violating consumers right by well known Bank of America is beyond my imagination. We are in America how could these happened to honest people?
Bank of America allowed my California EDD benefits to be wiped out and stolen via unauthorized transfers of funds by someone in Corpus Christi, TX on three separate occasions in August 2021, September 2021, and October 2021. I filed claims to both the EDD and BofA’s fraud departments but still have yet to hear from them concerning resolve. I am requesting assistance regarding this matter please.
I had the same problem 5,000. Was used and I never got it back. Customer service was a joke, I would like to join the class action lawsuit
Would like to join
I lost my card and my edd bofa account was frozen for 7 months, My PTSD was of the charts, I don’t know how I survived it, and I definitely blocked some things out.
Yes I would like to join all the class action lawsuits regarding unauthorized use against bank of america
I filed a law suit also against the bank of America I had so many problems with them a law firm in Las Vegas took my case on but I lost contact with them so months back all my info was on a phone that was stolen from me . So I’m in limbo and really don’t know what to do.
I had so many issues with B.O.A. my card was stolen and used to charge thousands in merchandise from my account and when I reported it to BOA they did nothing and would not reimburse me for my loses.
How do you join I had thousands stolen from me and they did nothing about it