NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) – A group is suing Scottrade claiming that its failure to safeguard their personal information resulted in their personal identity being abused.
Plaintiffs David Stern, Cyrus Jenani and Daniel Soffer, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, filed a class action lawsuit on Oct. 30 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Scottrade Inc., citing breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, breach of contract, violating the New York General Business Law, violating the New Jersey Consumer Fraud act, violating the California Civil Code, and California’s Unfair Competition Law.
The plaintiffs allege that beginning in or around late 2013 and continuing through early 2014, Scottrade’s confidential database was hacked, leaving millions of Scottrade consumers exposed to fraud and identity theft. Cybercriminals accessed personal information, such as names, addresses, Social Security numbers, email addresses and financial information, from approximately 4.6 million consumers, the complaint states. The plaintiffs argue that the data breach is a "direct result of Scottrade’s negligent failure to implement and maintain reasonable and industry-standard security measures to protect its consumers’ personal and financial information," according to the complaint. They also assert that despite the fact that the security breach initially occurred nearly two years ago, Scottrade has only recently begun to notify its consumers of the breach on Oct. 1. The notice sent to Scottrade customers, plaintiff claims, is also deficient, failing to fully explain the nature and cause of the massive data breach.
The plaintiffs are seeking a jury trial and are suing for Scottrade to pay for not less than three years of credit and identity theft monitoring services for plaintiffs and the class; all compensatory and statutory damages to the plaintiffs and the class; punitive damages, including treble and/or exemplary damages; litigation fees; and any other rewards deemed just by the courts. They are represented by attorneys Shannon L. Hopkins, Nancy A. Kulesa, and Stephanie A. Bartone from Levi & Korsinsky LLP in Stamford, Connecticut.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York case number 1:15-cv-08567-VSB