WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is suing a national credit monitoring company, alleging the business failed to offer the services customers paid for.
Richard Cordray, director for the CFPB, filed the lawsuit July 1 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia Alexandria Division against Intersections Inc. alleging many customers couldn't receive identity theft protection.
The lawsuit alleges the company failed to get valid authorization from customers, or that fraud alerts on some consumer's credit files prevented it from gaining the necessary information to provide the services.
However, despite Intersections knowing it couldn't provide credit monitoring or identity theft services, it still charged customers a monthly fee, the lawsuit said. Customers were charged between $8 and $13 per month.
“When Intersections identified an error in a consumer's enrollment, it could take Intersections anywhere from a few hours to a few years to resolve the issue,” the lawsuit said.
The suit said between Jan. 1, 2009 to Feb. 28, 2013, the company collected about $32 million from 300,000 customers who did not receive the full service benefits.
The CFPB seeks to obtain an injunction against Intersections, restitution for customers and an unspecified amount in civil penalties. The bureau is represented by Benjamin Mizer, principal deputy assistant U.S. attorney general, Dana J. Boente, U.S. attorney, and Antonia Konkoly, assistant U.S. attorney.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia-Alexandria Division case number 1:15-cv-00835.