CFPB Files Lawsuit Against Fifth Third For Allegedly Opening Unauthorized Accounts

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has filed a lawsuit against Fifth Third Bank. The CFPB alleges that for several years Fifth Third without consumers knowledge:

  • Opened deposit and credit card accounts in consumers names
  • Transferred funds from consumers’ existing accounts to new, improperly opened accounts
  • Enrolled consumers in unauthorized online-banking services
  • Activated unauthorized lines of credit on consumer’s accounts

The CFPB alleges that this conduct continued through at least 2016, despite knowing from at least 2008 that this practice was occurring. Fifth Third claims that the lawsuit is unnecessary and they had investigated the allegations and found that a total of 1,100 accounts were opened fraudulently out of 10 million existing accounts and the financial damage caused was less than $30,000. If this all sounds familiar then that’s because Wells Fargo had a similar suit against them filed and were recently ordered to pay a $3 billion dollar fine.

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DP
DP (@guest_933410)
March 10, 2020 12:46

On their best day, they are a dishonest operation with terrible customer service. Learned that the hard way. I will *NEVER* do business with them. There is no bonus large enough to compensate me for their drama. The world will be a better place when they go out of business.

danny
danny (@guest_933408)
March 10, 2020 12:44

i opened a checking account for the recent bonus a few months ago. just got a courtesy ‘check in’ phone call from them. talk about a guilty conscious

Duke I.
Duke I. (@guest_933253)
March 10, 2020 09:58

Auntie Maxine would get to the bottom of this! Happy we have her!

debit
debit (@guest_933165)
March 10, 2020 07:16

CFPB is like Medicare. The biggest beneficiaries usually are the ones trying to shut it down. And they don’t learn either. It’s a constant struggle to protect these people from themselves.

Sandif
Sandif (@guest_933821)
March 10, 2020 22:45

Spoken like our resident troll. Don’t feed or encourage the troll.

Duke I.
Duke I. (@guest_933124)
March 10, 2020 05:48

Absolutely the best news. Just filed a complaint against Fifth Third with CFPB back in December.

Lumpy McJizzum
Lumpy McJizzum (@guest_933034)
March 10, 2020 02:39

Fifth third opened an unauthorized account for p2

cjb
cjb (@guest_933425)
March 10, 2020 13:05

Quite a credible DP coming from someone named Lumpy McJizzum. What’s P2’s name, Squirty McButtgravy?

Stone
Stone (@guest_933026)
March 10, 2020 02:32

I have personally benefited from the CFPB intervening on a complaint against
PayPal and I think they do a good job. I’ve been upset that the Trump administration has worked to systematically dismantle and dismember it…. This is a real shame for the consumer.

Ben P
Ben P (@guest_933093)
March 10, 2020 04:43

Hey im hopeful bernie sanders wins. Politics aside, it very important that all consumers have the same type of benefit as major corporations do.

Jenny
Jenny (@guest_933112)
March 10, 2020 05:32

DoT is also in line to become toothless

Yana
Yana (@guest_932929)
March 10, 2020 00:15

Whoa, they just went full WF.

Gadget 🕵️
Gadget 🕵️ (@guest_932910)
March 9, 2020 23:56

5th/3rd recently sent me a data breach letter saying my data was accessed by a rogue employee, but there was no known wrongful uses of my information thus far (or something to that effect), and they were working with authorities… My compensation: They were only offering me credit monitoring for one year, and it was through THEIR OWN PROTECTION SERVICE, and after the 1st year, they would bill me. And I needed to accept the offer within 30 days. Sounded eerily familiar to Equifax and their originally botched announcement.

I guess I will have to look into this more… maybe it’s related.

ieatdogfood
ieatdogfood (@guest_932919)
March 10, 2020 00:04

What happens if you don’t accept? You retain rights to sue or other compensation?

I feel enlightened with lots of new information today.

Gadget 🕵️
Gadget 🕵️ (@guest_933047)
March 10, 2020 03:01

There was no mention of alternative compensation. It’s unlikely I would sue and they know it. I could call and see if they offer something else up, but I have a feeling they would just bait me into saying something I shouldn’t… on a recorded line.

ieatdogfood
ieatdogfood (@guest_933249)
March 10, 2020 09:51

I’m curious what you’ll do. I’ve always chosen credit monitoring but at this point they all give me the same alerts and I have so many of them I can’t even remember. When something is triggered, I get multiple emails from multiple Monitoring services I totally forgot that I had. And I can’t even remember the log in details lol. At least I know they are working for that particular alert.

Angry Retail Banker
Angry Retail Banker (@guest_932898)
March 9, 2020 23:43

This is just the beginning. Citizens Bank and Santander are already notorious for this.

Gerald
Gerald (@guest_932973)
March 10, 2020 01:10

Sources?