LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - A new class action lawsuit accuses Walmart of not having systems in place to prevent fraud.
Walmart Inc. and Block Inc., formerly known as Cash App, are facing a suit filed by Risa Potters on behalf of herself and others similarly situated on Dec. 8 in Los Angeles federal court.
The plaintiff alleges that Walmart and Cash App have been knowingly facilitating fraudulent financial transactions for years, exploiting the elderly and vulnerable individuals. Despite being subject to FTC orders and government investigations, the defendants have allegedly continued to ignore glaring flaws in their anti-fraud measures.
The complaint further states that Walmart promotes itself as a "one-stop shop for financial services," which has inadvertently made it a one-stop shop for scammers due to inadequate protections against fraud. Similarly, Cash App is accused of making it easy for scammers to create accounts without meaningful identification and allowing victims to deposit cash into these fraudulent accounts.
Risa Potters, a 73-year-old woman from Agoura Hills, California, claims she was directed by a scammer posing as a police officer to make deposits into Cash App accounts using barcodes supposedly linked to a court's bond account. The plaintiff alleges that Walmart facilitated these transfers without raising any red flags or informing her about the nature of these transactions.
Attorneys from Strange LLP in Los Angeles are pursuing the case.