The Zelle money transfer service is advertised as a “safe and easy way to send money fast.” The complaint for this class action alleges that it is not safe and does not have the same fraud protections as credit cards, but that this is not made clear to consumers before they begin using the service.
Two classes and two subclasses have been defined for this action:
- The Nationwide Zelle Class is all persons with BofA accounts who signed up for Zelle and incurred reimbursed losses due to fraud.
- The Nationwide Transfer App Class is all persons who used a person-to-person payment application, including Zelle or Venmo, that was linked to their BofA consumer account and incurred unreimbursed losses due to fraud.
- The two subclasses are the California Zelle Class and the California Transfer App Class, including all California persons in the above classes.
Zelle is a transfer app owned by seven major banks, including BofA, and used by some 1,500 other member banks. BofA promotes Zelle as a free and secure way to send money to others, but the complaint alleges that “it misrepresents and omits a key fact about the service that is unknown to accountholders: that there is virtually no recourse for consumers to recoup losses due to fraud.”
Most methods of payment, such as debit cards, credit cards, and checks, do have fraud protections that limit losses, the complaint points out. But once money is sent out using Zelle, the complaint alleges, it is gone forever, with no way to restore it.
The complaint alleges that “the risks are well known to BofA but are omitted from all of its marketing regarding Zelle.”
Zelle users may be tricked into making transfers in response to fraudulent requests, the complaint says, or a fraudster may steal a phone and make transfers via Zelle from it. Another scam is to pretend to “hire” a person for a job, send them a (fraudulent) check, then tell them to pay for goods via Zelle.
The plaintiff in this case, Mohammad Al-Ramahi, was tricked by this last type of scam, the complaint alleges. He was “hired” for an admin job online and was told that one of his duties was to pay for goods and supplies. He was sent a check for $4,950, and the complaint alleges, “BofA allowed this check to clear and made the sum available” to him. He was then told by the fraudster to send off $2,500 by Zelle and $2,450 by Venmo.
Some days later, the complaint claims, BofA told him the check was altered or fictitious, deducted the $4,950 from his account, and charged him a $12 returned check fee. When he tried to recover his money, the complaint alleges, “Zelle, Venmo, and BofA all refused to cover the transactions in question or help him in any manner whatsoever.”
Article Type: LawsuitTopic: Consumer
Most Recent Case Event
No Fraud Protection for Zelle Money Transfers Complaint
May 27, 2022
The Zelle money transfer service is advertised as a “safe and easy way to send money fast.” The complaint for this class action alleges that it is not safe and does not have the same fraud protections as credit cards, but that this is not made clear to consumers before they begin using the service.
No Fraud Protection for Zelle Money Transfers ComplaintCase Event History
No Fraud Protection for Zelle Money Transfers Complaint
May 27, 2022
The Zelle money transfer service is advertised as a “safe and easy way to send money fast.” The complaint for this class action alleges that it is not safe and does not have the same fraud protections as credit cards, but that this is not made clear to consumers before they begin using the service.
No Fraud Protection for Zelle Money Transfers Complaint