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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.
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204 thoughts onBank of America Faces Another Unemployment Benefits Hack Lawsuit
Please add me . I frozen out of my unemployment benefits. For months I haven’t had access to my funds . I did everything they said but I still have no access . Please help us in this dilemma.
Please add me.
On the evening of 01/27/2021 I went to check my available balance on my debit card and noticed my card was locked due to suspicious activity. My account showed out of state/unathorized transactions that had occured just hours before. ATM withdraws & other unexpected/irregular actions. This card was physically in my possession the entire time, how was someone else using it at an ATM out of state? I opened a claim the following day first thing when they opened and reported all the unathorized charges. One day later my claim was closed and the funds have never been reimbursed. No investigation was even pursued. These Bank of America cards are supposed to be protected by the “Zero Liability” policy, I guess that’s just a lie they are allowed to get away with.
I also have an EDD account, and I have been waiting for Bank of America to refund/credit money back to my EDD account. I have been waiting since September 2020.
I am glad this has been brought to the surface. I even filed a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and nothing has been done as of yet. As a result of filing with the CFPB, I received an email from a woman from Bank of America complaints, stating she wanted to solve the problem. I have called her 5 times, she has not contacted me back. This situation just happened in the last two weeks. They should also be made to pay penalties to each customer whose money was not refunded in a timely manner. Shame on them – their deception continues..please add me.
Bank of America was notified that my son’s debit card had large purchases via the Internet without his consent. He called the bank and notified them. they did not return the stolen funds and basically insinuated his report was fraudulent.
I had deposit of 19030 into my account then my statement said 19015 was spent but that’s not true I can prove with all my transactions that only 15000 was spent and bank of America says they dont know where my money is and nothing they can do about it.
I had 200 taken from my account….i was suppose to recieve 1000 when i checked 200 was taken …..i live in kentucky…..
I had same thing happen to me back around Christmas. My unemployment posted to my card. I used it at a couple places tried to get cash back from card it was declined. Checked online i had money so i tried again it froze my card due to some fraudulent claims or something. It took me forever to get it working again. I’m glad the state of my made us find another way to deposit our unemployment. I couldn’t get to my money to pay bills or buy food or anything. It put me in a huge bind.
Today, my Bank of America checking account was frozen. My second unemployment payment hit my account at 1am. I made a walmart grocery purchase at 5am and my debit card worked. At 9am I tried to pay for something online and my card was declined. I tried to do several website purchases just to see if it was one particular website malfunctioning. I then checked the mobile app and all of my unemployment money was there but it showed the first attempt to purchase something was declined. I called customer service who referred me to 9 different departments. Every department that I talked to said that my account is fine and my card should work. I tried transaction after transaction while agent was still on the phone and every one was declined. Nobody knew why my purchases were being denied. One lady told me that I am at risk of account closure. Then the next agent assured me that the info about account closure was incorrect. I then went to the bank to find out what is going on and the teller said that my account is partially frozen. I told her that I had so much trouble and no answers that I just want to withdraw my unemployment money and close the account. I proceeded to insert my card into the machine at teller booth and she said even my withdrawals are being declined and she has never seen anything like that happen. The teller then takes my card in my ID to someone in the back who calls other divisions to find out what’s going on. She is back there for about 25 minutes and comes out and tells me she’s figured it out. So, I migrate you figured out my problem what was it? She said that there was a couple of items on my account that needed my verification and that I was all set to use my debit card that I can withdraw money from the counter. Since the calendar line was super busy and I had already been there for about 45 minutes I asked the lady if I can just withdraw cash from her and she says that she can’t give me cash because she has no cash for me to go outside to withdraw the money from the ATM. She volunteered to go with me to the ATM on site informed her that the same issue happened with everybody else I talk to these all said that the card works and it doesn’t. We walk out to the ATM in the freezing cold and I insert my card but my PIN number in she’s watching my transaction she tells me how much money I should take out and it declines me again. She seemed pretty shocked as was I. She said she would make a couple of other phone calls and give me a call later that I could go because I had to leave anyway. She called me back and said she had someone on the line that knew exactly what the issue was and was going to help me. I spoke with a man from the fraud department who verified my identity and purchases and he said that he had the input a couple of things to make the card work again and that he was sure that the car would work now. I assured him that the card probably would not work because everyone has told me the same exact thing that they don’t know what’s going on everything looks good except for the fact that my account is partially frozen 2 everything except for deposits. Imagine that they only going to take deposits for me but want to keep my unemployment money. After I left the Bank of America Center I came home and was on the phone for an additional hour and a half with a lady who said that she could reset my card reset everything and it would all be okay an hour later she told me I should receive a new debit card in the mail so now I’m without a debit card and I asked her about the zelle transfers I said that’s not card related is account number related so it should work right? She says oh yeah zelle work go ahead and try it and I said are you sure it won’t set off red flags and I’m sending money to myself on another account and she said no it will not. I decided to log into my Bank of America app and try to transfer $170 from Bank of America to my zelle account and for about 5 minutes the money was deducted out of my balance approved upon review of course and then my balance went back to the same as it was before I started the zelle transfer. So everyone that I spoke to on the phone and at the bank today completely lied to me or was oblivious to what is really going on. It’s not just my bank card that is frozen it’s my entire bank account and they have made it to where it looks normal looks like everything is working properly and the only one that’s going to know that it doesn’t work is me when I try to use it. I was confused and wondering why this is happening how come out of 10 people total that I’ve talked to no one can understand this issue that I’m going through all the years the Bank of America has been in service and no one knows what’s going on and tells me that everything is fine. I decided to search Bank of America freezing accounts and holding unemployment money and sure enough there has been so many complaints and class action lawsuits filed do to Bank of America freezing 300 and some odd number of accounts because they suspect unemployment fraud. First of all it’s not their duty to check everyone’s unemployment that is up to the unemployment commission. Secondly it would have been extremely nice for Bank of America or the unemployment office to notify me Ivette my account is being investigated for fraud. I have nothing to do with fraud I’m confused, broke now, lost don’t know who to turn to and I keep having panic attacks because I feel like someone’s out to get me. I suffer from severe anxiety anyway and this situation has intensified it a hundredfold. these people that are employed by Bank of America are made to pretend like they don’t know what’s going on when in fact they’re playing the game and making you feel stupid. This is not fair I have done nothing wrong and I would like my funds released in my bank account closed because I will never do business with Bank of America ever again. You cannot hold someone’s money and tell them that you don’t know why they can’t get it out it doesn’t make sense at all. I guess it just doesn’t matter because I’m sure in the eyes of the uppers at the banks I am just simply a sheep. I don’t know what to do or who to turn to or even when my money will be released. I am getting ready to change my direct deposit to the account that is offered by the unemployment office and hopefully they won’t freeze that account as well.
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