Brenda Vitalis v. cPort Credit Union

CourtDistrict Court, D. Maine
DecidedJanuary 27, 2026
Docket2:25-cv-00217
StatusUnknown

This text of Brenda Vitalis v. cPort Credit Union (Brenda Vitalis v. cPort Credit Union) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brenda Vitalis v. cPort Credit Union, (D. Me. 2026).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

DISTRICT OF MAINE

BRENDA VITALIS, ) ) Plaintiff ) ) v. ) No. 2:25-cv-00217-LEW ) CPORT CREDIT UNION, ) ) Defendant )

ORDER ON MOTION TO DISMISS

In this action, Plaintiff Brenda Vitalis sues Defendant cPort Credit Union for alleged violations of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the Fair Credit Billing Act. The matter is before the Court on Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss (ECF No. 7). Plaintiff’s Allegations The following facts are drawn from the Complaint and its attachments. In the spring of 2024, Plaintiff Brenda Vitalis (“Plaintiff”) fell victim to a form of overpayment scam and lost $58,000 to unknown criminals. The scam involved an April 30, 2024, telephone communication in which the fraudster persuaded Plaintiff that there had been an unauthorized transaction in which $599 was paid to a GoFundMe account from her PayPal account. The fraudster claimed to be a representative of PayPal and offered to refund the money to Plaintiff in two transfers of $300. Thinking she was acting in her own best interest, Plaintiff agreed to install software on her personal computer that gave the fraudster remote access, and from there the fraudster set up online banking access for Plaintiff’s accounts with Defendant cPort Credit Union (“Defendant”).1 At the time, Plaintiff had

three accounts with Defendant: a home equity line of credit (“HELOC”), a savings account, and a checking account. Prior to April 30, 2024, Plaintiff had never signed up for online access to her accounts. After setting up online access to Plaintiff’s accounts, and without Plaintiff’s knowledge, the fraudster executed transactions that resulted in an extension of credit from the HELOC to the savings account in the amount of $30,000, followed by a transfer of the

$30,000 from the savings account to the checking account. Later that day, the fraudster contacted Plaintiff a second time and reported that a mistaken overpayment had occurred. The fraudster told Plaintiff that instead of wiring her $300, the fraudster mistakenly wired $30,000. He asked Plaintiff to help him recover the overpayment by withdrawing money from her checking account and depositing it in a certain ATM machine. Plaintiff complied

with this request. Having executed one successful scam against Plaintiff, the fraudster contacted her once more, a couple of days later, and repeated the fraud. Once again, Plaintiff saw excess money in her checking account, without realizing that it was deposited there through the fraudster’s use of Defendant’s online banking system to make another advance against

1 Plaintiff alleges that she “did what the fraudster asked” and that she “did not know what the fraudster was doing.” Compl. ¶¶ 29-30. In a letter to Defendant that is Exhibit A to the Complaint, Plaintiff reported that the fraudster told her that she would need to set up online banking to pay the money back and that she set up online banking with the fraudster’s help. Compl. Ex. A. Plaintiff’s HELOC. Once again, Plaintiff withdrew a large quantity of cash and deposited it in an ATM at the fraudster’s direction.

On May 8, 2024, Plaintiff visited one of Defendant’s branch offices and reported what she then considered suspicious activity. Defendant informed her that the money in her checking account had come from her HELOC and not from an outside deposit. Realizing that she was a victim of fraud, Plaintiff reported the fraud to local law enforcement and asked Defendant to help her rectify the situation. Sometime shortly thereafter, Plaintiff received a periodic account statement that

reflected the account activity associated with the fraud. On June 6, 2024, Plaintiff sent a notice to Defendant in which she asserted that the transactions were unauthorized and requested that Defendant perform an investigation. Compl. ¶ 54 & Compl. Ex. A. On June 27, 2024, Defendant responded. Defendant denied liability for Plaintiff’s loss and provided its response to certain legal contentions made by Plaintiff and/or her counsel. Compl. ¶ 58

& Compl. Ex. B. I do not relate the legal contentions here but will discuss them below. DISCUSSION

Plaintiff proceeds on three counts.2 In Count I, Plaintiff alleges that Defendant violated the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1693f, by: a) Failing to investigate and resolve the unauthorized electronic fund transfers initiated by the fraudster. b) Failing to provisionally recredit Plaintiff’s account within ten business days of receiving notice of the unauthorized transfers.

2 Plaintiff voluntarily dismisses her fourth count, a state law claim of unjust enrichment. Although Defendant asks that the dismissal be with prejudice, pursuant to Rule 41 I will dismiss Count IV without prejudice. Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(a)(1). c) Misclassifying the fraudulent transactions as authorized transfers despite clear evidence of unauthorized access and control by the fraudster. d) Refusing to credit the Plaintiff the funds that were transferred without her permission.

Compl. ¶ 69. In Count II, Plaintiff alleges that Defendant violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2, by furnishing inaccurate information to credit reporting agencies, failing to investigate the accuracy of the information when Plaintiff challenged it, and failing to inform credit reporting agencies that the reported information was disputed. Id. ¶¶ 83-84. In Count III, Plaintiff alleges that Defendant violated the Fair Credit Billing Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1666, by failing to investigate and failing to correct a “billing error,” including by

crediting her the money she lost. Id. ¶¶ 93-94. Defendant asserts that none of the three counts states a claim for which relief may be granted, for certain statute-specific reasons that will be addressed below. To avoid dismissal Plaintiffs must provide “a short and plain statement of the claim showing [they] are entitled to relief.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). In practice, this means

Plaintiffs’ Complaint must provide “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007). In applying this standard, the Court will accept factual allegations as true and consider whether the facts, along with reasonable inferences that may arise from them, describe a plausible, as opposed to merely conceivable, claim. Ocasio-Hernandez v. Fortuno-Burset, 640 F.3d 1, 12 (1st Cir. 2011); Sepúlveda-Villarini v. Dep’t of Educ. of P.R., 628 F.3d 25, 29 (1st Cir. 2010). But the Court need not credit conclusory statements that merely recite elements of the

claim. Cheng v. Neumann, 51 F.4th 438, 443 (1st Cir. 2022) (“We do not credit legal labels or conclusory statements, but rather focus on the complaint’s non-conclusory, non- speculative factual allegations and ask whether they plausibly narrate a claim for relief.”). A. Count I

In support of passage of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (“EFTA”), Congress offered certain findings and purposes.

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