A Deerfield woman sued Barnes & Noble for invasion of privacy claiming her credit card information was stolen when shopped at the booksellers’ Deerfield store in August and September, according to a complaint filed Monday in federal court in Chicago.
Susan Winstead filed the complaint for herself and “on behalf of others similarly situated” attempting to create a class action lawsuit against Barnes & Noble arising from compromised pin pads in 63 of the company’s stores throughout the United States, according to the complaint.
Earlier: Deerfield Barnes & Noble Card Readers Were Hacked
“The area of personal data protection is an area of rising public concern and something that needs to be of the utmost importance to the retail and merchant group in the country,” Aron Robinson, one of Winstead’s lawyers, said.
According to the complaint, Winstead received a call from her credit card company in late September about a potentially fraudulent transaction. She confirmed the activity was improper and deactivated the card.
Though Barnes & Noble acknowledged Oct. 24 PIN pads in 63 stores including Deerfield and Evanston had been compromised and information contained there stolen by criminals, it has yet to offer any compensation to the victim, according to the complaint.
The complaint also claims Wintstead and others whose personal information was wrongfully obtained will be required to take corrective action which could leave them more vulnerable to identity theft in the future, according to the complaint.
Robinson believes people should be better protected. “Consumers need to be comfortable providing this kind of information to retailers and know retailers are using every measure possible to secure their customer’s private information,” he said.
In addition to identity theft, Winstead has accused Barnes & Noble of negligence, violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (the Act) and further negligence violating the Act.
Barnes & Noble did not respond to a request from Patch for comments.
I heard later that the thieves would ask if the manager was in the store or when they would be off. Then they would come up to a salesperson and say that they were from the credit cards swiper company and they where there to replace the readers because of a problem. After about a month or two later, they would return and say they fixed them and replace it with the original. Banks can refund the money that was removed from your checking account. I tried calling visa/master card to stop issuing debit cards but all they said was "call the bank since they put they out, with our symbol and their name".