Suntrust Bank Class Action Filed over 1.5M Customer Data Breach

SunTrust Bank faces a class action lawsuit alleging that they did not sufficiently protect their customers’ information in a data breach discovered by the bank in early 2018.

Plaintiffs Angelica LeRoy, Curtis Smith, and Loretta Smith recently filed a class action lawsuit against SunTrust Bank Inc., alleging that the bank didn’t properly protect and safeguard their personal information, leading to a data breach discovered in February 2018.

In April 2018, SunTrust reportedly announced that an employee had maliciously accessed the confidential information of SunTrust customers. Records of around 1.5 million SunTrust customers were allegedly stolen from the bank’s systems to be sold to criminals.

According to the SunTrust Bank data breach class action, SunTrust’s announcement also included a statement that the bank had discovered the breach in February 2018, two months earlier.

The SunTrust class action lawsuit argues that SunTrust should have disclosed the breach earlier so customers could take steps to protect themselves from a privacy breach.

“Had SunTrust taken seriously its responsibilities to safeguard customers’ [personal information], and adopted security measures recommended by experts in the field, SunTrust would have prevented the former employees’ access to and, ultimately, theft of its customers’ confidential [personal information],” the SunTrust data breach class action states.

Data breaches involving personal information can be seriously damaging for consumers. If an identity thief obtains a consumer’s personal information, there are numerous, detrimental possibilities. An identity thief could use personal information to drain a personal bank account, open fraudulent credit accounts, obtain government benefits, file a fraudulent tax return, and more.

Although many companies will compensate their customers for any financial damages sustained by a breach, victims of identity theft have to spend their own time and money to clear up any fraudulent uses of their information.

The SunTrust class action lawsuit also argues that consumers would have had a better chance of protecting themselves had SunTrust disclosed the breach immediately when it was discovered.

Consumers would have allegedly had the opportunity to place freezes and alerts on their various accounts, contact their other financial institutions, and closely monitor their credit reports for signs of fraudulent acts.

“This time has been lost forever and cannot be recaptured,” the SunTrust Bank data breach class action argues. “In all manners of life in this country, time has constantly been recognized as compensable, for many consumers it is the way they are compensated, and even if retired from the work force, consumers should be free of having to deal with the consequences of a bank’s slippage, as is the case here.”

The plaintiffs seek to represent a nationwide Class of SunTrust customers who had financial accounts with the bank from Jan. 1, 2018 through May 1, 2018. The SunTrust Bank class action seeks Class certification, damages, equitable relief for SunTrust’s actions, court costs, and attorneys’ fees.

The plaintiffs are represented by Adian R. Miller of Morgan & Morgan PA; John Yanchunis and Ryan McGee of Morgan & Morgan Complex Litigation Group.

The SunTrust Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is LeRoy, et al. v. SunTrust Bank Inc., Case No. 1:18-cv-02200-MHC, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.