A Bank of America customer just launched a class-action lawsuit accusing the lender of illegally refusing to reimburse legitimate victims of fraud.
Plaintiff Kimberley Dennie says she lost her BofA debit card in February and soon watched several unauthorized transactions hit her account.
Dennie says she promptly reported the card as lost or stolen and submitted a claim, which included a police report detailing what happened, to recover $3,000 that had disappeared from the account.
According to the lawsuit, Bank of America quickly rejected the claim and accused Dennie of authorizing the transactions without offering any evidence, as required by law.
“Despite Plaintiff’s request for an explanation and further review, and submitting a police report for the stolen card and fraudulent transactions, Bank of America mechanically rejected Plaintiff’s claim without performing a reasonable investigation and instead, issued form denial notices devoid of any factual findings or documentation from its alleged investigation…
It was Bank of America’s burden to prove that these disputed transactions were authorized – not Plaintiff’s – and its failure to do so is unlawful and unfair to Plaintiff and thousands of other consumers who have to bear the consequences of stolen funds in unlimited sums.”
The lawsuit accuses the banking giant of routinely and brazenly rejecting customers’ legitimate claims while sending out vague, boilerplate letters of denial.
“Bank of America fails to comply with its statutory obligations by failing to provide written explanations of its denials.
Instead, Bank of America routinely denies claims without any explanation whatsoever, stating only its conclusion that a claim has been denied. Bank of America’s boilerplate denial letters flip the burden of proof onto consumers to disprove the supposed reasonableness of the Bank’s investigation. But [the Electronic Funds Transfer Act] puts the burden of proof on financial institutions to show that disputed charges were authorized.”
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in North Carolina, with the plaintiff seeking “actual damages, punitive damages, and an injunction on behalf of the general public to prevent the Bank from continuing to engage in its illegal and/or unfair practices.”
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