Consumer complaint received 2021-08-03
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
I was the victim of an imposter scam on XX/XX/21 and XX/XX/21 in which a man called me pretenting to be from Bank of America 's fraud department. I was misled to think I was correcting an unauthorized XXXX money transfer made on my behalf by someone when in realty I was completing the transfer in real time myself. On XX/XX/21 I called BOA customer service and learned that I had participated in a scam. I was told by the first two representatives I talked with that they would likely be able to recover the second payment I made on XX/XX/21 as it was still pending. The third representative I talked with, XXXX, told me this was not possible as it was essentially " putting money in the other 's person 's pocket ''. However, if I were to have been using XXXX 's app direclty instead of through BOA I would have been able to cancel this payment by going to XXXX experience, activity, click on payment and select cancel. I do not understand why it would be possible to cancel a XXXX transaction if I were using the XXXX app but not if I was using XXXX through BOA. For the full story see below : On XX/XX/21 I received a text seemingly from BofA Security ( phone number XXXX ) asking if I recognized 3 recent purchases on my debit card ending in XXXX XXXX correct number at the time, I cancelled this card on XX/XX/21 ). I replied No and immediately received a phone call from XXXX which is BOA 's customer service phone number. The person asked me to again confirm that I did not make these purchases and he informed me that someone had called customer service at BOA pretending to me, had my PIN number and was able to approve a XXXX purchase for {$3500.00}. He led me step by step through a process that was supposed to request the funds to be transferred back into my account through XXXX by adding myself ( I added my name and phone number ) as the recipient and sent {$3500.00} with code CR XXXX in the " what's it for? '' section which I was told was a confirmation number from a XXXX XXXX  account in Florida with the owner of the account being XXXX XXXX. I received a test message from XXXX providing me with a code to confirm my phone number asking me not to share it with anyone. The person on the phone told me to type it in without sharing it with him. I had to press a button " send money '' and received another text from XXXX which was supposedly BofA Security again asking me to confirm that I sent {$3500.00} to XXXX XXXX at XXXX ( my name and phone number ) and I replied yes as instructed. I was received a message from the same number saying " Thanks for confirming. Your XXXX payment will be sent. '' The person told my bank account ending in **** ( removed as sensitive info, can provide if needed ) would be frozen for 24 hours while they investigate the activity and my debit card ending in XXXX would be cancelled. All of these numbers to my personal accounts/cards were correct and I did not provide them to him. The next day ( XX/XX/21 ) the {$3500.00} amount was removed from my account. I received a call back from the same person 24 hours later to " follow-up '' and I told him of the charge, he assured me it was because XXXX XXXX  never received my request for the funds and had me go through the same steps a second time, sending a second amount of {$3500.00} and number XXXX. I was put on hold for about 10 minutes and eventually the call dropped at XXXX XXXX pacific time - the same time that BOA 's customer service in the fraud department closes. I called BOA the next day and was informed that no claim was every filed, my debit card was never cancelled, and I had been scammed. I was told BOA would never call me and I should always call them in the future. They told me the second XXXX payment which was still pending at the time was not able to be cancelled ( although per XXXX 's website it should have been able to be cancelled ). I was told they were going to launch an investigation that would take anywhere from 10-90 days but to not get my hopes up.

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