New York AG James sues Zelle parent company for alleged fraud

New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the operator of the Zelle payments network on Wednesday for allegedly enabling fraud, months after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau dismissed a similar lawsuit.

Early Warning Services is the owner and designer of the peer-to-peer money transfer company. An investigation by the Office of the Attorney General found that the company designed Zelle “without critical safety features,” which allegedly allowed scammers to steal over $1 billion from users between 2017 and 2023.

“EWS knew from the beginning that key features of the Zelle network made it uniquely susceptible to fraud, and yet it failed to adopt basic safeguards to address these glaring flaws or enforce any meaningful anti-fraud rules on its partner banks,” a statement from the office read.

The lawsuit alleged that Zelle became a “hub for fraudulent activity” because the registration process lacked verification steps and that EWS and its partner banks knew “for years” that fraud was spreading and did not take actionable steps to resolve it.

James is seeking restitution and damages with the lawsuit, in addition to a court order mandating that Zelle puts in place anti-fraud measures.

“No one should be left to fend for themselves after falling victim to a scam,” James said in a statement. “I look forward to getting justice for the New Yorkers who suffered because of Zelle’s security failures.”

The lawsuit follows a similar one that the CFPB dismissed in March. The CFPB sued EWS and JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo — the three U.S. banks that dominate transactions on Zelle — in December for allegedly failing to investigate fraud or offer reimbursement to users.

The regulator dismissed the case with prejudice amid a growing number of dropped cases under acting CFPB Director Russell Vought. CNBC previously reported that the agency agreed to never bring these claims again.