$2.1M settlement proposed in class action against Dell over data breaches, scam calls

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This article was published 13/11/2024 (648 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Halifax law firm says a $2.1-million settlement has been proposed in a class action filed against Dell Canada and its parent company Dell USA.

Wagners revealed Wednesday the proposed settlement in the case it has been pursuing on behalf of thousands of Canadians whose personal information was compromised during a breach of a service provider Dell used.

The data compromised in the 2017 breach was then allegedly used to carry out targeted tech support scam calls.

Wagners estimates more than 14,000 people will be eligible for compensation under the proposed settlement, which has yet to be certified. It still requires court approval and does not include an admission of guilt from Dell.

If approved, all class members who received a notice about the data thefts from Dell between April 2, 2018 and Jan. 25, 2019 will be eligible for $85. Those who can prove the breach resulted in fraudulent credit card or banking charges or who needed tech remediation services to recover from the incident may receive up to $3,000.

A hearing to approve the settlement is set for Feb. 27, when a Halifax court will also decide whether Dell will cover more than $426,000 in legal fees related to the case.

“We believe this settlement is in the best interest of Dell and our customers,” Dell says in an emailed statement. “The settlement is not an admission of guilt.”

The lead plaintiff in the case launched in October 2020 is a New Brunswick computer technician who purchased a Dell computer using his work contact information in early 2016.

He experienced years of inconvenience and anxiety because of the breach, which occurred at a call centre in India that provided customer support services for Dell.

The suit said Dell tech support collected and stored data about the plaintiff, including personal information like his name and email, his service history, warranty information and model numbers, after he sought assistance with his computer.

In January 2018, he started to receive harassing calls from individuals claiming to be Dell employees. Between January 2018 and early 2020, he said he got up to 10 calls a day and many weeks went by without a day where someone didn’t try to reach him.

“The calls would wake (him) from sleep, and constantly interrupt his life,” court filings said. “(He) was eventually left with no option but to change his work phone number used by countless clients, work contacts and employers.”

Even after his phone number was changed, the plaintiff still received numerous emails per day requesting that he call a number to resolve a Dell computer issue.

Court documents say he reported the behaviour in February 2018 to the federal Office of the Privacy Commissioner, which eventually said his complaint was well-founded.

The records say at one point the office released a report describing how another victim was convinced scammers reaching out to them were legitimate based on all the information they had about her. The woman thus provided remote access to her computer and paid $100 to the scammer, who installed malicious software.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.