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Zelle fraud class action lawsuits overview:
- Who: Bank customers recently filed class action lawsuits against Capital One, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Navy Federal Credit Union and Zelle.
- Why: Customers claim the financial institutions do not do enough to protect them from fraudulent activity on Zelle’s digital peer-to-peer payment platform.
- Where: The class action lawsuits have been filed in U.S. federal courts.
Consumers filed a number of class action lawsuits recently against financial institutions accused of not protecting account holders who were financially injured after being defrauded while using the digital peer-to-peer payment platform Zelle.
An influx of scams targeting Zelle users prompted a pair of U.S. senators to write a letter in April to the owner of Zelle, warning it about the amount of fraud perpetrated on the platform.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Robert Menendez, D-N.J., accused Zelle owner Early Warning Services LLC of not doing enough to prevent fraud from occurring on the platform.
The Democratic senators also placed blame on Zelle’s owner banks, including Capital One, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Truist.
“We seek to understand the extent to which Zelle allows fraud to flourish and the steps your company is taking to increase consumer protection and help users recover lost funds,” the senators wrote.
Consumers, meanwhile, have since begun going after financial institutions, claiming they are not doing enough to protect them from falling victim of Zelle fraud.
Capital One class action accuses bank of refusal to reimburse Zelle fraud victims
Earlier this month, a Capital One customer who claims he was the victim of a Zelle scam filed a class action lawsuit against the bank, arguing it declines to reimburse account holders who are scammed or exposed to fraud on Zelle.
“Despite the plaintiff’s timely alerting Capital One of the fraud, Capital One refused to reimburse him for the losses,” the class action lawsuit states.
The consumer behind the class action lawsuit claims Capital One told him it would be unable to put a stop payment on a money transfer made through Zelle that ended up falling into the hands of a scammer.
Wells Fargo class action alleges company fails to protect customers from fraud
Also this month, a consumer filed a class action lawsuit against Wells Fargo and Zelle over claims the companies fail to protect them from scammers who target Zelle mobile payment app users.
The consumer behind the class action lawsuit claims he was scammed out of $7,500, with Wells Fargo eventually reimbursing them for $3,500, after a scammer pretending to be with the bank convinced them to send funds.
In addition to allegedly initially declining to reimburse him, the consumer argues Wells Fargo and Zelle aren’t willing to put more protections in place that would help prevent their customers from becoming fraud victims.
“The immediacy of Zelle’s service has made it a favorite primarily among consumers, but that has made it a favorite among criminals, who can access bank accounts directly,” the class action lawsuit states. “Once scammers can scare or trick their victims into sending money via Zelle, they can siphon away thousands of dollars in seconds.”
Bank Of America class action claims financial institution fails to disclose risks of Zelle
A consumer also hit Bank of America with a class action lawsuit this month that alleges the financial institution fails to disclose to its account holders the risks of using Zelle for money transfers.
Further, the consumer behind the class action lawsuit argues Bank of America declines to reimburse customers who are victims of fraud through Zelle and that there is “virtually no recourse for consumers to recoup losses due to fraud.”
Navy Federal class action accuses credit union of failing to keep reimbursement promise
Navy Federal Credit Union, meanwhile, faces claims that it fails to keep its promise that it will reimburse account holders who lose money from fraudulent activity on Zelle.
Further, the Navy Federal class action accuses the credit union of misrepresenting to its customers the safety of using Zelle for money transfers.
“(Navy Federal) misrepresents and omits a key fact about the service that is unknown to accountholders: that there is virtually no recourse for consumers to recoup losses due to fraud,” the class action states.
The consumer behind the complaint claims Navy Federal has a “secret policy” of not reimbursing account holders who suffer financial losses due to fraudulent activity on Zelle, regardless of whether or not it is reported right away.
Has your bank refused to reimburse you after you suffered financial losses due to fraud on Zelle? Let us know in the comments!
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629 thoughts onZelle fraud cases mount as consumers file class action lawsuits
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On July 11th i fell victim to an $850 zelle scam and chase refuses to reimburse me my money even though I have a police report. I also blame Facebook for listing a scam on marketplace.
I used my NFCU account for Zelle and got scammed out of $500.00 and NFCU failed to return my money add me thank you.
Yes i have had this issue with chase and wells fargo i had chase they failed to refund my money so now i’m at wells fargo and now i have gotten the same thing with zelle.
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Please add me. I was scammed through Bank of America Zelle for $500 on June 15, 2022. I filed a fraud claim and the bank closed case. No letter by mail to even explain why. I have the email I was sent by the scammers.
I was scammed through Zelle when somebody logged into my Chase app and sent themself $1500 through my Zelle. Chase claimed no responsibility and zelle did the same. How can I join this lawsuit? Happened in September 2021.
FNBT(first national bank of texas) 900 zelle Someone bought items from me then disputed. Even with me having tracking they still kept my money
In June 2019, I reported a fraud loss of $4800 to NFCU through Zelle. I also contacted Zelle. Interestingly, each entity pointed the burden at the other. I filed numerous fraud claims with NFCUs fraud department. NFCU management claimed, ” They did nothing wrong” and refused to reimburse the fraud loss. Zelle claimed, “We have no way to accept or reimburse fraud claims.” This is wrong…both NFCU and Zelle have deliberately failed to protect its customers from fraud. What’s more, I alerted NFCU of fraud in April of 2019 and the fraud department speculated the fraud occurred due to a specific error that NFCU made. However, management twisted the facts. I have it all in writing.
The same thing happened to me! I phone hopped between zelle and chase for 3 days straight!
My name is Karen and I’ve had $700 missing since February through Chase Bank and with using zelle app when they sent money I went into the bank three times prior to this event happening. I was in the bank three times my husband and myself to get the banker our personal banker to help us take the automatic payment off of the cell phone and put a stop to it the man was unable to help us and sent us on our way two times third time he still can’t get it and on that third time that’s when my phone number was given to another person the phone # was not in service so it retro back to my account or account twice it did it the third time the number was given away and that’s when they took the money and put it in the account of whomever accepted and set up zelle using my old number. Which on the set of the sender was named Karen not whoevers account it went into. the banker did not know how to help me , so I filed claims and we checked on it daily. they said they were going to reimburse the money and when that day came, they made a decision that they were not responsible. To this day have not heard one word from them. they say they’re supposed to get back to me to tell me what their decision was and they still haven’t gotten back to me so I want to be added to the list of suits holding chase responsible and zelle. I went phydically into the bank to prevent and cancel future payments from occurring then received no help the next month it happened even though I went in and physically met with banker. I am wanting not only my money back but to help others such as myself to have competent bankers that can resolve these issues before they happen.