A Chicago woman has launched a class action lawsuit against Barnes
& Noble over the potential unlawful procurement of her debit-card
personal identification number.
Criminals tampered with PIN pad devices at 63 Barnes & Noble
stores across the U.S., stealing credit-card and debit-card information
including pin numbers punched in by customers making a purchase, the
company announced Oct. 24.
Stores in California, Florida, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York,
Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island were affected.
Elizabeth Nowak filed a complaint “individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated,” at the U.S. courthouse in Chicago Oct. 27.
“Barnes & Noble’s security failures enabled the skimmers to steal
financial data from within Barnes & Noble’s stores and,
subsequently, make unauthorized purchases on customers’ credit cards and
otherwise put Class members’ financial information at serious and
ongoing risk,” the complaint reads. “The skimmers continue to use the
information they obtained as a result of Barnes & Noble’s inadequate
security to exploit and injure Class members across the United States.”
Nowak is claiming breach of an implied contract and violation of
Illinois consumer fraud laws. She is seeking class action status on
behalf of anyone who used a credit or debit card via a store PIN pad
from Nov. 1, 2010 until present day. She is also seeking unspecified
monetary damages, litigation costs and three years of credit card
monitoring services for class members.
Nowak also cites the book retailer choosing to wait almost six weeks to publicly disclose the data breach in her complaint.
The data breach was uncovered in mid-September, but was kept quiet at
the request of the Department of Justice, an unnamed Barnes & Noble
official told the New York Times last week.
“We have acted at the direction of the U.S. government and they have
specifically told us not to disclose it, and there we have complied,”
the official was quoted by the Times.
In a statement
posted on the Barnes & Noble corporate website, the store indicated
it had “disconnected all PIN pads from its stores nationwide by close
of business September 14, and customers can securely shop with credit
cards through the company’s cash registers.”
The company said that card transactions on the Barnes & Noble
website and those involving its Nook e-reader were not affected.
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