Consumer complaint received 2023-01-13
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: IL
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
To whom it may concern, Our business XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  with XXXX XXXX XXXX. Our company wrote a check to a vendor of ours ( XXXX XXXX XXXX  ) on XXXX in the amount of {$1500.00}. That check was intercepted in the mail and signed over to a " XXXX XXXX '' which was not approved, ( nor do we know this person ) by XXXX XXXX XXXX. It was also altered to read " {$9500.00}. '' You can clearly see in the copy I have attached below that the one was altered to a XXXX both numerically and in the written portion of the check. It was then successfully cashed at a Bank of America, which we are stunned about, considering the check looks clearly altered. I went ahead and notified XXXX immediately when I noticed it was cashed on XXXX, along with notifying my vendor that the check was originally was supposed to go to. He filed a police report ( information attached ) along with myself. I filed a police report with XXXX, IL XXXX which is where our warehouse is located. I also filed a claim with USPS. As soon as all the paperwork was filed, I received a call from a gentleman at Bank of America basically asking me questions about this case and he went ahead and said " I can clearly see this is fraud so I will be marking it as a clear fraud case and it will be moved over to a different department that handles the re collecting of the money and giving it back to you. '' I have called Bank of America to see what the status was of our refund, and I have yet to hear anything. I am in constant contact with my bank ( XXXX ) but they said there is nothing that they can do and that they are at the mercy of Bank of America since that was where the check was cashed. I keep trying to call Bank of America and they say they can't help me because I don't bank with them. I offered the case number that XXXX provided me with and they said that their case number would be different from XXXX. I called XXXX again to see if they had any other case number and they don't. It has been a constant unfair battle. I am in constant contact with my banker and he is telling me there is nothing they can do until Bank of America responds. He also told me that Bank of America is now ignoring the emails that my banker and his supervisor are sending from XXXX. So now, not only am I being ignored from Bank of America, but so are the emails that are coming from XXXX Bank. I think this is absolutely ridiculous. We are talking about our hard earned money and Bank of America does not have the respect to respond after their bank allowed a fraudulent check to be cashed. I have provided all of the documentation supporting my case and I am really hoping that someone from the CFPB can help. My husband and I have started this company from the ground up and having {$9500.00} stolen from us hurts our business a lot and on top of that being ignored and basically " shooed '' away each time I call Bank of America because I don't bank with them. 

I have also contacted the police department for an update yesterday and the detective on the case has advised me that he believes he has located the individual that cashed this fraudulent check. He is in the works of getting a warrant. 

I also went ahead and also submitted this complaint but on the last page it asks to whom i'd like to send the complaint to and I stated " Bank of America. '' And then, it asks for a bank account number which I clearly don't have and this is the exact same issue I am having with them. I hit the edit it button so I could come back on this page and notify you guys in this description what just transpired.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation