Bank of America Corporation (BOA) was one of seven large banks that created the electronic payment service Zelle, which was designed to compete with other electronic money-transfer services like PayPal, Venmo, and CashApp. The complaint for this class action alleges that BOA promotes the use of Zelle by claiming it is “safe,” “secure,” and “easy,” but in reality, the complaint alleges, it has become a way for criminals to steal from consumers, with BOA providing no help in recovering stolen funds.
A class and five subclasses have been defined for this action:
- The Nationwide Class for this action is all BOA customers in the US whose BOA consumer bank accounts were debited in one or more unauthorized transactions using Zelle and who were not fully reimbursed by BOA.
- The California, South Carolina, New York, New Jersey, and Michigan Subclasses are all those in the above class living in the respective states.
The complaint quotes BOA’s Security Guarantee as saying, “You can confidently use Online or Mobile Banking—we guarantee that you will not be liable for fraudulent transactions when reported promptly and we will help keep your information safe.”
But the complaint alleges that “Zelle is neither safe nor secure. In fact, it is a favorite mechanism for criminals and fraudsters to steal money from BOA customers… Criminals can quickly, clandestinely and irreversibly move money out of the BOA account once they gain access to it.”
The complaint explains two types of fraud: unauthorized (when a bad actor gains access to the customer’s account and makes transfers to another account) and authorized (when the customer is fraudulently induced to make a transfer). All five plaintiffs for this class action claim to have had money stolen via unauthorized transactions with Zelle but BOA will not refund their money.
For example, one “made a call to what she thought was Apple TV because she was having trouble with that subscription service. The person on the other end of the call told her to download an app called AnyDesk Remote. The fraudster advised her to turn on her phone’s camera to show the modem was on, which she did. Within seconds, on her phone, she saw money moving from her checking account.” The fraudster created a Zelle account in the name of “Jacklyn,” moved money from her savings account to her checking account, then sent it via Zelle to “Jacklyn.”
However, BOA claimed that these were not unauthorized transactions and did not refund the money to her.
The complaint contends that BOA does nothing “in large part because BOA has an enormous financial incentive to push Zelle on its customers and encourage them to use it.” It cites three ways in which it claims BOA profits: (1) because it is a part owner of Zelle and profits from it, (2) because it saves money by avoiding transaction fees when other services are used, and (3) because it saves money in reducing the number of checks and cash transactions it must process.
Article Type: LawsuitTopic: Consumer
Most Recent Case Event
Bank of America No Refunds on Zelle Fraud Complaint
November 11, 2022
Bank of America Corporation (BOA) was one of seven large banks that created the electronic payment service Zelle, which was designed to compete with other electronic money-transfer services like PayPal, Venmo, and CashApp. The complaint for this class action alleges that BOA promotes the use of Zelle by claiming it is “safe,” “secure,” and “easy,” but in reality, the complaint alleges, it has become a way for criminals to steal from consumers, with BOA providing no help in recovering stolen funds.
Bank of America No Refunds on Zelle Fraud ComplaintCase Event History
Bank of America No Refunds on Zelle Fraud Complaint
November 11, 2022
Bank of America Corporation (BOA) was one of seven large banks that created the electronic payment service Zelle, which was designed to compete with other electronic money-transfer services like PayPal, Venmo, and CashApp. The complaint for this class action alleges that BOA promotes the use of Zelle by claiming it is “safe,” “secure,” and “easy,” but in reality, the complaint alleges, it has become a way for criminals to steal from consumers, with BOA providing no help in recovering stolen funds.
Bank of America No Refunds on Zelle Fraud Complaint