Consumer complaint received 2022-11-11
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: TX
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem using a debit or ATM card

Complaint:
Checking account XXXX for {$10000.00}. Complaint against Bank of America. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I was contacted by an official XXXX number informing me that I was the main subject of a money laundering operation and that my profession as an anti-money laundering analyst strengthened their suspicion. I would later come to find that these individuals were not whom they said they were a defrauded me for over {$25000.00} in total. While on the call a number from XXXX Texas Police Department came through which the fake XXXX rep told me to answer as they were 'working with local law enforcement '. The local police number confirmed what the XXXX rep had told me and when I was skeptical of their claims they then e-mailed me an arrest warrant with instructions of how to handle the situation while under investigation. This included putting my funds into pay vouchers to avoid my funds being frozen which would be returned to me at the end of the investigation period if I was found to be innocent. The next 2 days consisted of them surveilling me and forcing me to convert my funds into pay vouchers via XXXX ( {$10000.00} from my BoA Checking XXXX ) as well as the majority of my credit limit on my cards so a potential perpetrator would not be able to do so themselves. XXXX, they said, is one of the companies whom law enforcement has an arrangement with for these circumstances and would allow for me to be refunded. As I continued to grow frustrated with the process I contacted XXXX Police Department on XX/XX/XXXX around XXXX directly and asked for XXXX XXXX whom the fraudster claimed to be, and I was told there was no XXXX XXXX and that I would need to contact XXXX Police Department to inform. I spoke with police on XX/XX/XXXX and they walked me through what I needed to do to try and mitigate the situation the best I could and also contacted XXXX  to alert. On XX/XX/XXXX I filed a police report, contacted the financial institutions which were impacted to report fraud, canceled cards, changed user names & passwords etc. My complaint is specifically for Bank of America whom I initially contacted on XX/XX/XXXX to report fraud. They made me inform 3 different departments of fraud for my checking account, Debit Card and Credit Cards. I was told that the process would take a week and they would reach out to discuss next steps. Not only did they never reach out, they then stated I only filed a claim on the checking account which was entirely untrue. They then said no fraud existed on on the credit cards right after saying I never filed a claim which would be an impossible conclusion to come to in mere minutes if no claim was filed. I then had to call back, receive another representative, and she stated BoA handled everything inappropriately as they left my cards open, never closed my checking account and never issued a new checking account or new cards after fraud occur. This representative then helped me with those items, and made it so the credit card claims were finally inputted. I then filed my first complaint with CFPB and was assigned XXXX XXXX from BoA to assist on my complaint. She never responded to any of the several e-mails I sent, never answer a single call of mine after repeated voice messages and only tried me 2 times during off hours, days and weeks after my attempts to contact her. I had to file again with CFPB as BoA came back claiming there was no fraud since my pin was used. I clearly stated in my claim that I was the one conducting the transactions, but I was defrauded by bad actors whom generated a fake arrest warrant, called from real government and local police numbers and defrauded me into making the transactions. On the 2nd filing, I again got assigned to XXXX XXXX who's e-mail states she works from XXXX - XXXX eastern time, yet reached out to me on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX eastern time. Knowing she would try and contact me outside the hours she states she works I made sure to answer. At that time she claimed she would only assist me with 1 credit card instead of the 2 cards I filed claims on ( which after a painstaking debate she eventually did agree to help with both cards ), and she would not help me with the checking account claim and stated I would have to file yet another complaint with CFPB which is the purpose of this write-up now. So in essence, Bank of America is requiring customers to file separate complaints for each individual product that is negatively impacted instead of just helping in a holistic fashion to make difficult situations even more difficult. 
The other financial institutions I contacted to report fraud and they had all refunded charges and issued me new credit cards immediately, except for Bank of America. I also had contacted Bank of America on XX/XX/XXXX for a status update and checking/debit department said that there was no update, but they would expedite to a 48 hour update window. After that was said, they still didn't give me a resolution until XX/XX/XXXX where they notified me they would be revoking my {$10000.00} credit. I have submitted more than enough evidence that shows I was defrauded by bad actors and yet Bank of America refuses to credit me back the funds that were stolen from me which has effectively ruined me financially. I had to sell my only vehicle just so I could eat and pay bills. That evidence is also with Bank of America, yet somehow they don't think I was defrauded and that I willingly carried out these transactions.

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