Five Below Class Action Alleges 2-Month Data Breach

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A Florida woman claims that her personal information was exposed in a two-month long data breach affecting Five Below customers.

According to the Five Below class action lawsuit, shoddy security left consumers’ personally identifying information available to hackers and identity thieves.

The affected information reportedly includes payment information, such as names, addresses, credit card numbers, expirations dates, and security codes.

The Five Below class action lawsuit contends that the retailer specializing in teen and tween goods failed to inform consumers of the data breach until almost a month after it was discovered.

Plaintiff Marie Abdelmessih claims that her personal information was compromised as a result of the Five Below data breach.

Specifically, Abdelmessih says her accounts were hit with fraudulent activity, including multiple attempts to transfer money out of her account.

The plaintiff says that she had to freeze her credit report, open new accounts, reset passwords and get a new credit card.

“As a result of Defendant’s failure to implement and follow standard security procedure Plaintiff’s and Class members’ Customer Data is in the hands of thieves,” alleges the Five Below class action lawsuit.

“As a result of Defendant’s basic failures Plaintiff and Class members now face an increased risk of identity theft and will have to spend significant amounts of time and money to protect themselves.”

According to the Five Below class action lawsuit, the company became aware of suspicious activity on its website as early as Jan. 11, 2019. These suspicions were confirmed to be the work of hackers on Jan. 17, 2019, alleges the class action lawsuit.

Despite being aware of the hack, alleges the Five Below class action lawsuit, customers affected by the unauthorized access to their personal information through the Five Below website were allegedly not informed of the data breach until Feb. 14, 2019.

According to a letter received by the plaintiff, the data breach occurred over approximately two months, affecting customers who accessed the Five Below website between Nov. 13, 2018 and Jan. 11, 2019.

“Customer Data has become a valuable commodity among computer hackers,” points out the Five Below class action lawsuit. “Once obtained, it is quickly sold on the back market where it can often be re-traded among miscreants for years.”

The class action lawsuit points out further that Five Below was aware of the risks of identity theft and its role in protecting consumer data.

Further, alleges the class action lawsuit, Five Below experienced an earlier data breach in August 2018 and September 2018. As a result, the company promised to improve security measures.

“The veracity of the representations, however, were completely belied by the fact that less than two months later, Five Below was subject to a near identical data breach,” contends the Five Below class action lawsuit.

The plaintiff is represented by Charles E. Schaffer and Daniel C. Levin of Levin Sedran & Berman and John A. Yanchunis and Patrick A. Barthle of Morgan & Morgan Complex Litigation Group.

The Five Below Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is Abdelmessih v. Five Below Inc., Case No. 2:19-cv-01487-JP, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

UPDATE: July 2020, the Five Below data breach class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.

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