Redfin faces data breach class action lawsuit after incident
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- Key Insight: Redfin headlines five real estate companies which have recently acknowledged data breaches and have immediately been hit with class action claims.
- What’s at stake: Consumers often secure settlements with companies in such litigation, including four deals by lenders this summer.
- Forward look: Watch for formal responses, and likely denials of wrongdoing, from the recently sued companies.
Redfin is facing two new data breach class action complaints after it revealed a smaller event, highlighting the legal risks for lenders as even an industry giant is not spared from litigation.
The real estate platform last month quietly revealed an incident which occurred in March that affected 55 Massachusetts residents, according to a public notice. That announcement follows
Ex-Redfin employee Frankie Moreno sued the company three weeks ago, while a plaintiff with unknown ties to the business filed his own class action complaint last week. The lawsuits, which resemble the dozens of complaints filed against lenders immediately after their data breach disclosures, were filed in a Seattle-area federal court, where Redfin is based.
There was no indication in Redfin’s notice, nor the lawsuits, that the data breach affected Rocket, the mortgage behemoth which
A spokesperson for Redfin said the company identified suspicious activity in March involving a single employee account. The company said it engaged forensic experts and confirmed that its systems were secure.
“Redfin also reviewed the relevant data, notified potentially affected individuals, and offered them two years of complimentary credit monitoring,” the statement read. “The company is confident it will prevail in the related litigation once all the facts are presented.”
Attorneys for the plaintiffs didn’t return requests for comment Monday.
The attack appears smaller than other large-scale incidents in the past few years, although it’s a rare acknowledged cybersecurity event at one of the industry’s leading brands.
Data breach litigation seldom goes to trial or reaches class certification stages as companies frequently settle with consumers earlier, denying wrongdoing and stemming off larger payouts. Four lenders reached deals with consumers this summer over incidents, the largest of those being
New Jersey lender reveals hack, faces trio of suits
Florham Park, New Jersey-based retail lender MLD Mortgage is facing three new federal class action lawsuits as it discloses a recent hack.
The company, which does business as The Money Store, told the Texas attorney general’s office that 1,367 residents were affected in an incident. The formal notice follows reports on cybersecurity blogs that the ransomware gang known as Storm compromised its systems.
Neither a representative for The Money Store, nor attorneys for the plaintiffs behind the three similar data breach lawsuits, returned requests for comment Monday. The company had over $1.7 billion in origination volume last year, and has 218 originators across 48 branches, according to public records.
The hack and lawsuits at The Money Store resemble similar cases in September at Affordable Mortgage Advisors, Gold Star Mortgage and
None of the companies sued in the past few weeks have yet formally responded to the class action claims.
