Consumer complaint received 2022-09-16
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Getting a credit card
Sub-issue: Card opened as result of identity theft or fraud

Complaint:
I'm filing this compliant against Bank of America because they have refused to cooperate in a legitimate investigation for almost an entire year. I have been a victim of identity theft and when I learned of this issue I immediately started taking matters into action to resolve this and Bank of America claims they have conducted investigation but in reality they haven't done anything. I have tried to resolve this matter with Bank of America for their negligence but they do not understand anything and literally I mean anything. This Bank of America account was opened in XXXX  with it multiple other accounts were opened without my permission and consent. I say this because I have never opened nor conducted any business with Bank of America. Whether this was Bank of America opening the account on their own without anyone or they opened for an identity thief is not the issue. The issue is that they opened the account and the account was abused for over {$18000.00} and now they are trying to collect that sum of monies from me. I told Bank of America when I learned of this issue that I never associated in any form of business whether checking, credit, or personal accounts with your institution and yet they do not understand. I learned about the existence of this account after I tried to buy a house late XXXX when I went to my real estate broker 's office. The broker had to run a financial background check to know if I'm eligible for a real estate loan. When he saw the credit reports too, he told me there is a huge balance to Bank of America. I did inform my broker that I do not have any account with Bank of America. He showed me otherwise. He also informed me if you suspect this account is fraud immediately notify Bank of America so they can perform the proper procedure and remove the account from your records since it does not belong to you. I contacted Bank of America and discovered there was a credit card account with a balance over {$18000.00} and a checking account. Bank of America took care of the checking account and removed it from their records. As I was told both Bank of America checking and Bank of America credit contained the same information and yet one account is eligible for deletion and the other is not. Yet, they claim that one of the accounts is deemed fraud and the other one I should hold responsibility for it. Bank of America wants me to hold responsibility for a fraudulent account that was opened from the result of an identity theft with a balance over {$18000.00}. Bank of America recklessly opened fraudulent account for someone who was impersonating me or they did it on their own will. ( I do not want to make any certain claim about them to protect myself in case of a slander ). When I contacted Bank of America, they requested police report from my local police department, signed and notarized affidavit, and billing statements. I provided everything to them and I request the statements and the record of application from Bank of America because I want to know where did the account originated from. I received the statements from Bank of America in a special packet and the statement all contained a derogatory address in XXXX, CA. I informed Bank of America by a phone call because I never resided in XXXX, CA however, they refused to understand and place that in their claim. Every single time I call them to know the updates of their claim they tell me, " the claim has been closed and you are going to be responsible for the account. '' Then they re-open the claim and the same loop continues. I will submit all the documents thus far that has been sent to Bank of America to the consumer financial protection bureau. Bank of America violated my privacy, violated the bank secrecy act by not verifying the accuracy of the information and opened an account to another individual that abused it and now they are attempting to hold me responsible for the account.

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 monetary relief