Dollar Bank class action claims data breach affected 13K+ current, former customers

Dollar Bank class action overview:

• Who: Plaintiff Anna Stewart-Gower filed a class action lawsuit against Dollar Bank.
• Why: Dollar Bank allegedly failed to adequately protect its customers’ sensitive data leaving it vulnerable to cybercriminals who may have accessed its systems from 2021 to 2023.
• Where: The Dollar Bank class action lawsuit was filed in Pennsylvania federal court.

Dollar Bank FSB doing business as Dollar Bank is facing a class action lawsuit in the wake of a data breach that may have affected more than 13,000 current and former customers.

Dollar Bank is a regional bank that operates in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland and had more than $10 billion in total assets as of 2021, according to the complaint.

In 2021, Dollar Bank acquired Standard AVB Financial Corp., which had $1.1 billion in total assets. Dollar Bank also acquired the personally identifiable information (PII) of Standard Bank’s current and former customers, the Dollar Bank class action lawsuit explains.

“In collecting and maintaining the PII, (Dollar Bank) agreed it would safeguard the data in accordance with its internal policies, state law and federal law,” current Dollar Bank customer Anna Stewart-Gower asserts in the class action lawsuit.

However, Dollar Bank allegedly failed to live up to its promise to safeguard customer data, leaving it vulnerable to cybercriminals who may have had access to certain Standard Bank systems between March 24, 2021, and Feb. 4, 2023.

Plaintiff says victims were kept ‘in the dark’ about Dollar Bank data breach

Stewart-Gower points out that the Dollar Bank data breach was detected more than 22 months after it began, and that Dollar Bank failed to notify affected customers until May 31, more than 100 days after the bank learned about the breach.

She says Dollar Bank kept putative class members “in the dark,” preventing them from attempting to mitigate any harm in a timely manner.

The information that may have been compromised in the Dollar Bank data breach include current and former customers’ names, addresses, Social Security numbers, birthdates, bank account numbers, routing numbers, account types, state IDs and military IDs. This sensitive PII has likely been published by cybercriminals on the dark web, the Dollar Bank class action says.

Stewart-Gower says she has been a Dollar Bank customer since approximately 1996 and that she provided the bank with her PII because she trusted the bank to protect her sensitive data.

As a result of the Dollar Bank data breach, she says she and other putative class members must spend significant time and effort monitoring their accounts to protect themselves from identity theft.

The class action lawsuit asserts claims for negligence, breach of implied contract, unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of confidence.

In 2021, Dollar Bank was hit with a class action lawsuit alleging it improperly charged overdraft fees when customers’ accounts were not actually overdrawn.

Were you affected by the Dollar Bank data breach? Tell us your story in the comments.

Stewart-Gower is represented by Larry Bendesky and Patrick Howard of Saltz Mongeluzzi & Bendes and Samuel J. Strauss and Raina Borrelli of Turke & Strauss LLP.

The Dollar Bank data breach class action lawsuit is Anna Stewart-Gower v. Dollar Bank FSB d/b/a Dollar Bank, Case No. 2:23-cv-01925-CB, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh Division.

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