Volkswagen Data Breach Exposed 3.3M Names, Addresses, VINs, Claims Class Action Lawsuit

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The personal information of more than 3.3 million Volkswagen and Audi owners and prospective buyers was exposed by cybercriminals in an unsecured file containing marketing and sales information between 2014 and 2019, says a California resident.  

Lead plaintiff, John Hajny filed a nationwide class action lawsuit in New Jersey federal court seeking to represent those whose personal information was hacked. Hajny accuses Volkswagen Group of America, Audi of America, LLC, as well as tech company Shift Digital of failing to properly secure the data exposed in the breach.  

Hajny, who has leased six Audi vehicles since 2014, says he was informed of the Volkswagen data breach on June 15, 2021. Hackers accessed files containing information about him and millions of other customers in early March, says the plaintiff, and the automaker confirmed the data breach in May.  

Before he was notified, Hajny claims that he was the victim of identity theft, with criminals submitting a false tax return in his name. The plaintiff says he has spent hours attempting to combat the fraud, but the government still thinks he owes $5,000 in taxes.  

As a part of doing business, Volkswagen and Audi dealers collect personal information about prospective buyers, explains the class action lawsuit. Despite knowing about the sensitive nature of this information, the defendants allegedly left the file accessed by hackers unsecured for two years.  

The information exposed in the Volkswagen data breach allegedly includes information gathered by dealerships from those purchasing or looking into buying a vehicle, such as:  

• Names, ailing addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers 
• Information about a vehicle purchased, leased, or inquired about including the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), make, model, year, color 
• Driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers, account or loan numbers, and tax identification numbers 

The plaintiff claims that information obtained from the Volkswagen data breach was discovered for sale on well-known hacking forums in early June, just as he and other consumers were notified. 

“Armed with the Sensitive Information accessed in the Data Breach, data thieves can commit numerous crimes including opening new financial accounts in Class members’ names, taking out loans in Class members’ names, using Class members’ names to obtain medical services, using Class members’ information to obtain government benefits, filing fraudulent tax returns using Class members’ information, obtaining driver’s licenses in Class members’ names but with another person’s photograph, and giving false information to police during an arrest,” warns the class action lawsuit.  

Hajny says that he and other consumers would not have done business with Volkswagen or Audi had they known that their personal information would not be secured and that they would not be notified of such a data breach in a timely manner.  

The plaintiff wants to represent a nationwide Class exposed in the Volkswagen data breach. He wants the automakers to pay for credit monitoring services, as well as for expenses Class Members paid to deal with fraud and identity theft from the breach.  

Was your personal information exposed in the Volkswagen data breach? Are you concerned about identity theft or fraud? Tell us about it in the comment section below! 

The plaintiff is represented by Mark C. Rifkin, Rachele R. Byrd, Brittany N. DeJong of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP, M. Anderson Berry of Clayeo C. Arnold, APLC.  

The Volkswagen Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is Hajny v. Volkswagen Groups of American, Inc, et al., Case No. 2:21-cv-13442-JMV-JBC in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.  

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