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Zelle consumer class action overview:
- Who: A Zelle customer filed a class action lawsuit against the company.
- Why: The plaintiff claims the company does not do enough to protect customers from fraudulent activity on Zelle’s digital peer-to-peer payment platform
- Where: The lawsuit was filed in California federal court.
Zelle is the latest company to be hit with a consumer class action lawsuit amid a string of lawsuits alleging company owners do not declare or mitigate the security risks of using the payment transfer service owned by seven of the largest banks in the United States.
Plaintiff Dele Hope filed the lawsuit July 7 against Early Warning Services LLC, also known as Zelle, in a California federal court, alleging violations of consumer laws.
According to Hope, Zelle encourages bank account holders to sign up for the service by marketing itself as a fast, safe and secure way for consumers to send money.
However, this is false, he says.
“In fact, there are huge, undisclosed security risks of using the service, including from fraudsters who regularly exploit the service,” Hope alleges.
“Zelle’s marketing representations never inform users that consumers — not Zelle or the banks through whom money is transferred — bear the full risk of these grave security and fraud threats,” the class action states.
Zelle class action alleges money not reimbursed after fraud
The class action states Zelle is fully aware there is a major fraud problem on its platform and that the banks that own it almost never reimburse victims of Zelle fraud for their losses.
In Hope’s case, he was defrauded by a scammer out of $395 in 2020. Hope used Zelle to transfer the scammer the money. When he realized he had fallen victim to fraud, he immediately informed his bank, but his bank refused to reimburse him for the losses.
As a result, Hope is seeking damages, restitution and an injunction to prevent Zelle and member banks from continuing to engage in its allegedly illegal practices.
He looks to represent anyone who signed up for Zelle and incurred unreimbursed losses due to fraud plus a California subclass.
He seeks certification of the class action, damages, fees, costs and a jury trial.
This is the latest in a string of class action lawsuits recently filed against financial institutions, including TD Bank, that are accused of not protecting account holders who were financially injured after being defrauded while using the digital peer-to-peer payment platform Zelle.
Last month, a Seattle resident who filed a class action lawsuit alleging Wells Fargo and Zelle failed to protect customers from scammers who use Zelle’s mobile payment app dropped his claims.
Has your bank refused to reimburse you after you suffered financial losses due to fraud on Zelle? Let us know in the comments!
The plaintiff is represented by Edelsberg Law PA and Kalielgold PLLC.
The Zelle class action lawsuit is Dele Hope v. Early Warning Services LLC, Case No. 2:22-cv-04639, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
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991 thoughts onZelle class action alleges company erroneously advertises as safe, secure
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Add me my financial institution is Palteco and Zelle I incurred feeswhen told Zelle was not the correct platform for bill pay
Please add me
I currently have about 4k “in the cloud” that BOA says it’s not their issue and I’m in with cash app trying to find it but I won’t. It is horrible and you can prove you never receive the money but they claim at your own risk over the phone but in writing they say something different
Please add me. Have used this service several times
Please add me
I lost $3499 to fraudsters using my Bank of America account.BOA refusing to return any of the funds or even given me documentation as to how they ruled this as an authorized transaction
Same here!! I lost 3500 due to fraudsters
I was scammed also and Zelle was the culprit no reimbursement like you would get from other things. Chase bank once again!
No protection from using Zelle and the fraudsters know it! Chase bank advertises as a SAFE way to send money to friends and family! I’m out almost $6,000 for repairs to a vehicle that were never completed. The mechanic knew Zelle had no protection so took my money ! Contacted Chase & they basically told me too bad! This is not a SAFE way to send money to anyone, even friends and family! Organized crime at its BEST!
I just lost my entire life savings in several fraudulent Zelle transactions through CITIBANK that I have now been denied restitution for twice, after they initially found in my favor. NOW they are attempting to justify their change of heart after subsequently removing around $10,000 USD that they paid initially. I was hacked, and the bank is claiming that I authorized the transactions, which I did NOT. It is clearly shown in my bank statements but the bank has repeatedly rejected my claim and NEVER once asked for information regarding the activity from a legitimate perspective. Nor have I ever been shown any evidence of WHY they continue to reject my claims. I believe they act this way because there is no oversight happening to date. Any class action lawsuits available I will join.
I was scammed out of $800 using Zelle with Washington Savings Bank. I called the back immediately, they told me they would file the transactions as fraud, but I probably wouldn’t get my money back.
I was recently scammed $ 1, 127.32 through Zelle via Bank Of America,
I was able to keep the scammer impersonating PG&E on the phone while I ran into my local Bank of America office in Monterey California .. both the manager and her assistant, listened while the person was still claiming to be from PG&E and he needed to have another confirmation code entered claiming the first confirmation code of 1000 01 did not go through to verify that I properly paid the PG&E bill to avoid my electricity from being shut down in 45 minutes .the Bank of America will not reimburse these funds stating it is an authorized transfer !