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Anthem Customers Sue, Say They Paid For Protection Before Data Breach

DENVER (CBS4) - Angry customers are taking action against Anthem after the insurance provider was hit hard by hackers and exposed personal information.

Anthem's data breach is now sparking lawsuits. In Denver District Court two lawsuits were filed within days of each other, and one of them calling for a class action.

The lawsuits claim Anthem failed to tell customers they didn't have adequate security measures in place to protect their information. One lawsuit alleges that Anthem was able to charge higher premiums, and customers were willing to pay for the security of their information, when in reality they were not being protected.

Attorney Patrick Peluso filed the class action on behalf of his client.

"Anthem included in their privacy policies and various parts of their websites, as required by Hipaa, that they have to safeguard people's information," Peluso said. "They promised that they did safeguard it. They didn't as evidenced by the breach itself. The data wasn't even encrypted."

The lawsuits also claim that Anthem waited nine days before informing customers about the data breach.

anthem
(credit: CBS)

The impact of the breach, attorneys claim, were felt immediately when phishing emails were sent to customers. Those emails appeared to be from Anthem asking people to verify credit card and personal health information.

Anthem Colorado told CBS4 they can't make any comments on the pending litigation.

Lawsuits have also been filed in other states -- California, Indiana and Alabama. In the Alabama case the plaintiff is asking for lifetime consumer credit protection along with damages.

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