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UPDATE:
- On April 6, 2021, another class action lawsuit was lodged against Bank of America in California federal court claiming a consumer could not access her unemployment benefits through the bank. Bank of America has since responded, noting that it has added customer service agents to answer phone calls and investigate claims in a statement to reporters.
Bank of America’s handling of unemployment benefits is being challenged by a growing list of plaintiffs in at least two class action lawsuits.
A new filing out of California claims the bank isn’t protecting the unemployment benefit accounts it is in charge of and is failing to make it right for the thousands who’ve been frozen out of their money.
Christoper Mosson is the plaintiff in the latest class action lawsuit filed against Bank of America. He’s arguing negligence and breaches of contract, among other things, after his Bank of America unemployment account was hacked and drained of all its money last year.
The Oakland resident noticed unauthorized charges on his account in December and called Bank of America’s customer service to report the fraudulent charges, according to the complaint.
Bank of America froze the account, leaving Mosson unable to access the remaining funds— eventually returning the entire balance back to California’s unemployment department.
Mosson says Bank of America handouts debit cards to unemployment claimants that don’t have a chip, leaving them exposed to skimming and other methods hackers use to steal private financial data.
This breaches Bank of America’s policy which promises to provide products that are safe to use, Mosson alleges in the complaint.
Furthermore, Mosson points to Bank of America failing to uphold its liability guarantee by leaving him without any money during the ordeal.
Mosson argues he isn’t the only person having to deal with the issue. He quotes Bank of America customer service representatives in the class action lawsuit, who admit to hearing about the issue regularly.
“We’re actually no longer allowed to tell them a timeframe, because we have no clue,” the representative said referring to refunds of stolen money, the complaint contends. “Every day, I talk to 30 people with the same story. I just pray for them after my shift, honestly.”
Mosson further alleges this lack of communication in the complaint. He says many Bank of America unemployment account holders were never notified of the fraud.
Rampant fraud led Bank of America to freeze approximately 350,000 unemployment accounts beginning in October, according to this new class action lawsuit.
The issue was the topic of the state lawmakers in a hearing held Tuesday, ABC 7 News reports.
Mosson is seeking to form a class of members who’ve had or currently have a Bank of America unemployment benefits account.
Formally, the class action lawsuit accuses Bank of America of negligence and breach of contract, in addition to violating the Electric Funds Transfer Act and California’s Consumer Privacy Act.
Just last week, a separate class action lawsuit with similar claims was filed against Bank of America. The named plaintiff in that case reports $400 was stolen from her unemployment benefit account.
Another consumer who says her unemployment benefits were hacked has filed a class action lawsuit against Bank of America. In this class action, filed in California federal court in April, San Diego resident Deaniesha Lawrence claims she and others were left with “pennies” in their accounts after fraudsters made off their unemployment benefits.
This most recently filed class action lawsuit claims that Bank of America used “antiquated” technology for unemployment benefit recipients. It also notes that, even though the bank has removed the freeze it put on accounts with reports of fraud, it has not taken any action to reimburse the stolen funds. Lawernce claims that the bank “made it nearly impossible for those in need of benefits to receive their much-needed aid.”
In response to this latest class action lawsuit, a Bank of America spokesperson told Law360:
“We have added thousands of agents to answer phone calls and investigate claims for the areas of the program we are responsible for and, as a result, our average wait time for callers has dropped dramatically. While the vast majority of unemployment fraud is committed by those filing false applications, when fraudulent transactions occur on benefit cards we review those claims and restore money to legitimate recipients.”
Do you hold an account with Bank of America? Have you ever had issues with your Bank of America unemployment accounts getting hacked? Let us know in the comments below.
Attorneys representing the plaintiffs in this class action lawsuit are P. Terry Anderlini, Joseph M. Goethals, and Jackson D. Morgus of Anderlini & McSweeney LLP.
The Bank of America Unemployment Account Hack Class Action Lawsuit is Mosson, et al. v. Bank Of America, N.A., Case No. 3:21-cv-00743 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:
204 thoughts onBank of America Faces Another Unemployment Benefits Hack Lawsuit
I had made a transfer from my BofA EDD account to my other bank account. My other bank had declined the transfer and sent it back to my BofA account. BofA said nothing was sent back and no funds were released. My other bank even told me they accepted the funds and BofA still won’t give me back my money. It has been frustrating because $500 is suddenly missing and all they do is give me the run around. BofA is stealing my money and will not give it back.
My accounts were all hacked and the bank treated me like I was the criminal that did it. They closed all my accounts that I’d had for 13 years and my credit card. They then locked me out of all of my online access. I had 1500 in one account for a scholarship fund I started for my mentor that passed away. The money was transferred to that account and never touched. They told me that money would not be returned because it was under review. I called several times and over and over they told me there is no day of update and that I may have to wait to get the money or until the issue is resolved for 3-20 years!!! How can this even happen with consumers’ money? The reps were always clueless to why this was happening and called it hold harmless. That’s the dept in the bank that will not provide any update on when I can ever get that money back. I hate BOA.
Same happened yesterday they got me for$1600.00i
Someone just $700 out of my account 7-19-2021 so I called bank of America they told me transaction was width draw from ATM in Buena park, California same day the fund posted. I was not in California on 7-19-2021. B OF A told will take them 90 days to investigates . It’s sad that really need that money right away.
Monday morning i called bank of america to see if my edd money had been put into my acct. And it had so i got dressed and went to the bank .Only to find out someone had already with drawed it. 900 dollars so i called the bank and they said someone had made a wihdraw from a atm in brea ca. I said how and the hell can they do that i have my card right here so you dont need a card now days I found out these cards they give us are worthless someone need to help us please include me in this class action law suit thankyou
I lost an incredible amount of money to a fake Binary option Brokers. It all started from a phone call and after some persuasion I decided to invest, after months of constant investment about 95k$, I decided to ask for a payout this was the beginning of my turmoil, to my dismay I was still asked to invest more. Being a Single father this really affected me and despite all efforts to contact them failed. I was introduced to < (CryptoMundia) via Yahooocm] they took legal actions against them and they helped me retrieve my funds couldn’t be more thankful
I lost an incredible amount of money to a fake Binary option Brokers. It all started from a phone call and after some persuasion I decided to invest, after months of constant investment about 95k$, I decided to ask for a payout this was the beginning of my turmoil, to my dismay I was still asked to invest more. Being a Single father this really affected me and despite all efforts to contact them failed. I was introduced to < (CryptoMundia) at Yahooocom] they took legal actions against them and they helped me retrieve my funds couldn’t be more thankful
Add me
After reading these comments from other people that went through it banking. With and at Bank of America. I know most of the ones leaving comments here are not even close to being done with what they have to said or what they had gone through. Ok. Wow….. Every time I hear that name Bank of America. It make me wanna go on a rampage, kick and punch the wall. Rip the phone right off the wall and bang non stop over and over and over and over. Again and again and again. Until I can’t go on anymore… Like the time BOA decided to freeze my account that left me broke with no money to pay my workers because I had just opened up a business for my first time.. Ahhhhahh !!!!!! OmG please do something about these hoodlums and teach them a lesson for leaving me stuck in their parking lot or endless hours answering every single security questions correctly over and over. again and again. YOU GOTS TO BE KIDDING !!! How is that.? I had always thought that the right answer was a good thing. But this time it was far from it. So from my social security, birthday, password, address, phone number, mother’s maiden name, birth certificate, and my Oregon ID which way is expired. So all of those I answered each and single one correct, and I still couldn’t get past. Oh yeah and plus my mobile app online I typed in the correct password never changed it had it the same password and for some reason they locked it up so I couldn’t access none of my phone’s I couldn’t see anything. They completely locked me out of my own account two axes my own my fund and when I did go and ran my debit card at the atm, it shows a negative balance of 29 99 million dollars. I could not believe it I was sick to the stomach sad man Angry pissed I wanted to just hurt somebody I looked at somebody and just just stop. Went and sat in the truck and started to breathe trying to calm myself down cuz I was so piss. No I have to go back and told the guys that we wouldn’t be able to work because we didn’t have enough fuel to go out and work and I wasn’t able to pay them so they decided to go somewhere else and right after I spoke with customer service again. And was told two step begin side of a branch with two forms of ID. This f****** motherfuker got to be f****** kidding because I just did that with my valid ID that I drove 6 hours to go get to verify myself I got no damn gas I need my money what else do you want from me. So when I did that I pretty much wasted my whole time just being on the phone and going to Bank of America branches after branches verifying after verifying for f****** what Bank of America you’re so f****** stupid I hope you’re reading this s*** too I’m so f****** pissed but anyway I’m sorry bud I f****** hate Bank of America I love America but I hate Bank of America. Do you know how many times they left me with no gas sitting across the street trying to think of a way to get gas to go home in my f****** work truck you know how f****** embarrassing that is. And when I asked about when was the call made about the fudge name reports or the name of person who called in you guys can give me no f****** answer you know why they couldn’t give me no f****** answer because I am the f****** primary holder of my f****** account. And who decided to come up with this fraud department that doesn’t know f****** that s*** from s*** that f****** froze my account and now it’s still f****** closing but it’s open but negative amounts please explain. I lost track of everything when I just gave up what now I don’t want to give up I just want to see them face some kind of punishment for what they did to us me whoever went through this s*** that they put you through or me or he or she these f****** punks don’t discriminate when it comes to f****** people over and I still have these emails from them but yet they can’t even unlock my mobile banking. Till this day I still cannot access my own damn account nor I don’t want to because I might end up maybe going to jail if I went back and dealt with Bank of America so I’m happy with Bank of the West now thanks a lot cuz I already hit almost rock bottom and I spend alarm trying to come up with my business and now I got no damn workers they see f****** Bank of America I couldn’t fix my f****** engine my Kirk cousins f****** Bank of America sorry for the language excuse me I f****** hate Bank of America
Somewhere between the funds leaving CA EDD and the Bank of America transfer to my B of A account (which I’ve had for years) 4 out of 11 payments made in one day, were never received. I had retroactive payments due from EDD, 11 total. They show all of them as paid out on one day, only 7 of them actually were deposited in my bank account. I have spoken with Bank of America and been told to contact EDD…lol, not an easy feat. I have now spent hours on hold and minutes with agents who were rude and had no idea what was happening. One agent told me he’s never heard of anything like this. I am beyond frustrated, I am responsible for taxes on these funds, I can’t find anyone who cares or can help. The agents literally have been rude and downright mean. I can’t believe the demoralizing effect this has had, not to mention the ptsd, seriously. I cry every time I call EDD knowing that it will be a good 6 or 7 hours on hold and likely to get my call dropped. I’ve had to pay a call back service $35 just to get put on hold. This is horrible!!!
Lost 1000 from my edd boa account, i had my card! How‽?????
same here.,.BofA today said it was pulled from a wells Fargo ATM. I am 100.miles away. I have no clue how they got my card # & pin. I’ve researched tonight. I’m at a loss…