Wells Fargo is facing a new class action lawsuit over the bank’s alleged failure to properly secure customers’ personally identifiable information.
The lawsuit, filed by lead plaintiff Tamra Bacon, alleges Wells Fargo has suffered a “preventable hack” that has exposed thousands of customers’ data.
Wells Fargo confirmed a breach last month, stating an insider at the bank accessed and used customers’ information to perpetrate fraud between May of 2022 and March of 2023.
In letter sent to customers posted on the Office of the Vermont Attorney General’s website, Wells Fargo says the stolen data includes names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, bank account numbers, credit/debit card numbers, brokerage account numbers and loan/line of credit numbers.
Bacon says the incident has placed her in financial turmoil.
“The Data Breach has caused Plaintiff Tamra to suffer fear, anxiety, and stress, which has been compounded by the fact that Defendant has still not fully informed her of key details about the Data Breach’s occurrence.
As a result of the Data Breach, Plaintiff Tamra anticipates spending considerable time and money on an ongoing basis to try to mitigate and address harms caused by the Data Breach.
As a result of the Data Breach, Plaintiff Tamra is at a present risk and will continue to be at increased risk of identity theft and fraud for years to come.”
Wells Fargo has not publicly commented on the breach, which Bacon claims was due to lax security at America’s third-largest bank.
“Representative Plaintiff seeks to hold Defendant responsible for the harms it caused and will continue to cause Representative Plaintiff and, at least, thousands of other similarly situated persons in the preventable hack purportedly discovered by Defendant on or around July 2024, in which unauthorized actors accessed Defendant’s inadequately protected network servers and accessed highly sensitive PII that was being kept unprotected.”
The complaint says there are currently more than 100 class members involved.
Bacon says class members are entitled to “injunctive and other equitable relief” as their data was compromised and in some cases used to commit fraud.
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