Consumer complaint received 2022-08-28
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
Note that I am not sure is this was a US Domestic transfer or an international transfer. I placed an item for sale on XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/2022. A person named " XXXX '' responded and wanted to buy it. All of our interactions were on XXXX XXXX and I have screenshots of the entire conversation. This person asked if I used XXXX, XXXX or XXXX XXXX. I said I use XXXX and I gave my email address so this person could make a payment. The person said they made a payment. I instantly received an email from what very much looked like XXXX. ( I had received and sent money only a couple of times before this and I always received an email just like this one. ) However, the email said that I received a payment but it would not post to my account because my XXXX account had too low of a threshold to accept the amount. The email also stated that this person would need to make an additional {$200.00} payment to raise the threshold on what my XXXX account would accept. I responded back to the email that I do not understand what was happening and got back a second email from what looked like XXXX stating the person making the payment would get sent a message to make a second payment. I was totally embarrassed and really confused and told this person on XXXX that. I called my bank XXXX XXXX XXXX  ) but it took a very long time to get a banker on the phone. While waiting for a banker to get on the phone, I told this person I would call my bank and this person told me that they had encountered this before and I did not need to call the bank. ( I did stay on the phone still waiting to get a banker. At this point I still thought something was wrong on my end and everything was still legit. ) Then this person tells me that they will make a second payment and that I could go into my XXXX ( I use XXXX in my bank 's account ) and send them the {$200.00} refund and I needed to send this person a screenshot of the transfer. I really did not understand why they needed a screenshot and did not even understand what they meant, but I said ok because I am a really honest person and like things to always be fair and I wanted to fix this right away. This person then told me to hang on and then said they made the second payment. I received an email from " XXXX '' that told me the second payment was made. I was still so mortified that I could be screwing someone and not meaning too that I was very grateful we had found a solution. ( Meanwhile I was STILL waiting for someone to talk to at my bank. ) I then went into my XXXX account and did notice that there were no funds posted from this person, but the email from " XXXX '' told me there would not be. So I sent {$200.00} to this person literally just as the banker got on the phone. I realized my mistake as soon as I sent the money and even told the banker " Oh my god, I think I just got scammed. '' The banker directed me to the activity on my XXXX account and told me to cancel the transaction but there was no way to do it. She then told me that the money was transferred to a Bank of America account. She asked me if she could open a dispute for me and I said yes. This person on XXXX XXXX told me they got the money and now they needed the screenshot. At this point I knew I was scammed so I did not send the screenshot. I was then sent a third email from " XXXX '' with a my XXXX picture and another picture of someone getting arrested and a message saying that XXXX is going to file an FBI report if I do not send the screenshot and my bank account would be blocked. And unfortunately, the banker who made the dispute for me was misinformed. I waited 2 weeks to have my dispute rejected and someone from the fraud department at XXXX XXXX tell me, to weeks later, that they don't do disputes for scams through XXXX. The banker told me to call XXXX directly and I did and they told me they offer no consumer protection and can not help me.

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