Consumer complaint received 2022-07-22
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Government benefit card
Issue: Problem with a purchase or transfer
Sub-issue: Charged for a purchase or transfer you did not make with the card

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2022, I checked my Bank of America EDD card as I do every few days. My balance was unexpectedly below {$1.00}. I checked my statement and saw two withdrawal transactions dated XX/XX/2022 I did not authorize. One was titled " XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX '' in the amount of {$360.00} and it was pending. The other was titled " Bank of America '' and was posted at {$2900.00}, with no other information shown in the App. These two transactions combined had wiped out the only remaining maternity leave money I had in my EDD account, leaving me with cents. I did not authorize either transaction and had no information about these transactions. I have not given anyone besides myself access to this bank account. I immediately contacted Bank of America EDD and reported these as fraud. They closed the card and sent me a new one, stating it would take up to 90 days to decide if they would return my money to my account. They told me I would have to wait for the pending transaction to post, and then it could be removed for fraud, the other was already posted and they needed to investigate it, which could take up to 90 days. I then filed a police report in my county regarding these fraudulent transactions. I was told by the detective that the {$360.00} transaction was from a cryptocurrency account. I have no association, affiliation, investment or financial relations in any sort of cryptocurrency. Someone had hacked into my account. Thankfully, the pending {$360.00} fell off in a few days since I made the report it was fraud, before it posted. During this process though, I received no information about sending supporting documents or filing a police report from Bank of America during the initial fraud complaint. I found out this information on my own, and faxed it to the bank as soon as possible. After the 90 days of review, I received a one-page statement in the mail from Bank of America , stating my claim for the {$2900.00} was denied, and that the transaction was authorized, and no credit will be made to my account. After hours of phone calls over the span of now 10 months, and at least 5 times of resubmitting this fraud claim, I have received no information from Bank of America on how to escalate my claim, WHY my claim was denied ( other than " amount authorized '' which is not true, someone stole my account information to make the ACH transfer, which I found out on the 4th time of reconsideration via phone with Bank of America EDD ). I did not authorize either transaction. They both are fraudulent. On the 3rd or 4th reconsideration, I also sent my other personal checking account statement to Bank of America EDD regarding this claim, showing I had not made any transfers to my only other active checking account at the time of this transfer. The money that was stolen from my state benefits, EDD, account was the only remaining money from my maternity leave, and the Bank of America did nothing to protect this money, nor accurately refund this stolen money to my account after I took all of the steps possible to submit information for this. This has made me rely on credit cards to survive while not being able to work immediately XXXX, providing sole care for my baby, and relying on financial support from friends and family. I have tried to escalate this matter to a supervisor via phone at Bank of America EDD, and my request was denied, stating no information was possible to give to me and no details in the reason for my claim being denied, despite it being fraud, has been given after multiple reconsiderations.

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