Jones v Bank of America
New Jersey Lawyers File Identity Theft Class Action Against Bank of America
Two New Jersey law firms filed a complaint against Bank of America on June 1, 2005 in New Jersey Superior Court, Mercer County on behalf of Trenton resident Cindy Jones.
The attorneys announced their intention to seek class action status to represent other identity theft victims as well against financial services giant Bank of America for damages resulting from the theft of tens of thousands of customer information files.
Ms. Jones, a customer of Bank of America, was informed that her personal financial information, including her Social Security number, were found in the possession of individuals arrested by Hackensack, New Jersey police in the growing scandal. Of immediate concern to her attorneys, are potential unauthorized use of Ms. Jones" identity between the times of the theft and the arrests, the need (and cost) to carefully monitor Ms. Jones" credit reports for unauthorized activity during the next several years, and the availability of Ms. Jones" identity for her own use.
Hackensack, New Jersey police announced that more than 676,000 customers were affected when bank employees illegally sold information on more than 1 million accounts from 4 financial services companies: Bank of America, Wachovia, PNC and Commerce Bank. Police first announced arrests of 9 people, including 7 current and former bank employees, on Monday, May 23, 2005.
Bank of America has a fiduciary responsibility to protect clients" confidential personal and account information and could have taken some reasonable steps to prevent these thefts," explains one of the lawyers handling the case. "Bank of America is in a business based on trust, and they violated that trust. So this lawsuit seeks to hold them accountable."
