Wawa Class Action Says Data Breach Lasted 10 Months

A class action lawsuit has been filed against Wawa Inc. by customers who claim that the convenience store chain didn’t do enough to prevent a data breach from occurring between March 4, 2019 and Dec. 12, 2019.

Plaintiff Linda Newton claims that she is a loyal Wawa customer, shopping at their stores several times a month for numerous years. She states that there are 20 Wawa gas stations and convenience stores within a 30 minute drive from her home in Pennsylvania.

On Dec. 22, 2019, Newton reportedly received an alert from her bank which stated that her balance was low. She claims that she then logged into her account and found out that someone had been using her card to make purchases, including a gas purchase in New Jersey.

The plaintiff then alleges that she contacted the Wawa store in New Jersey and was informed about the data breach that occurred. Newton states that she was denied a refund from the fraudulent purchases from the manager at the New Jersey store.

Additionally, on Dec. 23, someone allegedly used her card to purchase items on Walmart.com, which caused her account balance to go into the negative. Newton argues that she had to cancel her card, which left her without a way to make purchases.

“Plaintiff Newton has been harmed by this data breach, including the fraudulent charges, lost time responding to it, the time she spent driving to the Quakertown location, as well as overpayment for goods and fuel at Wawa locations based on an implied part of the bargain that Wawa would comply with reasonable payment card security standards,” the Wawa class action lawsuit states.

The plaintiff alleges that Wawa should make significant improvements to their data security and that these changes should be ordered by and enforced by a court.

The Wawa class action lawsuit claims that cyber attackers invaded the company’s point of sale (POS) systems and installed malicious software on POS systems at all of Wawa’s 850 locations. Newton says the hackers were able to steal the financial information from customers for the better part of a year.

“Because of Wawa’s inadequate and negligent security measures and failure to adequately monitor its payment systems, cyber criminals were able to steal vast amounts of sensitive personal information, including credit card and debit card numbers, expiration dates, cardholder names, internal verification codes, and other card information,” the Wawa class action lawsuit states.

The plaintiff argues that millions of customers have had their personal and financial information made susceptible to hackers which was a result of their purchases at Wawa locations.

The data breach was reportedly announced by Wawa in December 2019 and the company stated in a press release that the hack was limited to debit and credit card information, but did not include PIN or CVV2 numbers.

The plaintiff claims that the data breach was inevitable because Wawa has inadequate and substandard data security measures and has a “cavalier approach” to data security.

“Victims of the Data Breach have had their Payment Data compromised, had their privacy rights violated, been exposed to the increased risk of fraud and identity theft, lost control over their personal and financial information, and otherwise been injured,” the Wawa class action lawsuit states.

Are worried that your financial information has been compromised in the Wawa data breach? Leave a message in the comments section below.

The plaintiff is represented by William B. Federman of Federman & Sherwood.

The Wawa Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is Newton v. Wawa Inc., Case No. 2:19-cv-06147, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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