Consumer complaint received 2023-08-13
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NV
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX PT, someone used my Bank of America credit card to purchase tickets to a basketball game on XXXX for {$1400.00}. The email address they used is XXXX. I do not know this person, and nobody is authorized to use my card except myself. According to the resolution letter provided by Bank of America, including information provided to them from XXXX, the purchase was made from a XXXX computer accessing the internet through the XXXX address XXXX which maps to near XXXX, NV where I live. I do not use a XXXX machine and I was in XXXX for work at the time. 


Early the next morning on XX/XX/XXXX, I received a fraud notice from Bank of America for 3 charges. One was a declined charge at XXXX for about {$800.00}. The second was for the accepted charge at XXXX of {$1400.00}. The third was a charge for a few dollars on the XXXX XXXX, which I did make. I confirmed immediately to Bank of America that the XXXX charges were fraudulent but the XXXX XXXX charge was not. Bank of America reversed the charge while investigating the fraud. 


That same day, I also began receiving emails from XXXX, which apparently linked my credit card number to an account I had with this merchant, despite the fact that I had not provided my credit card number to this merchant. ( Many years ago, I was gifted baseball tickets through XXXX and had to sign up to receive them. I did not provide any payment information to XXXX then or ever. I have not transacted with this merchant since. ) I also called their customer service number at this time to inform them that the charges were fraudulent and the subject of a fraud investigation from Bank of America. They took no action, and I continued to receive emails about the basketball tickets as if I had purchased them. It is through these emails that I found that the perpetrator of the fraud used the email XXXX. Upon signing in to XXXX I found no trasactions, payment methods, or tickets in my account. I was unable to resell the tickets or cancel their purchase. As far as I know, the tickets were delivered to XXXX and they were able to attend the basketball game on XX/XX/XXXX. 


On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a resolution letter from Bank of America stating that they are unable to approve my claim as the " merchant provided documentation confirming you received the merchandise or service ''. This resolution letter included a copy of the report from XXXX showing the XXXX  address and operating system where the charge was initiated. It stated that I had a credit card on file with the merchant, which is not true. What is true, to the best of my knowledge, is that XXXX linked my credit card to my email address and provided this linkage to XXXX without my knowledge or consent. As XXXX is a back-end credit card processor for many merchants and owned by XXXX, my understanding is that they would have my credit card and email on file because I've made purchases with other merchants. I have never made a purchase with XXXX. 


I have tried to resolve the matter with XXXX and Bank of America. Both are unreachable by phone. I have reached out on XXXX and have been told that XXXX will only work with local law enforcement. I have filed a police report but as far as I know this is not a priority for the XXXX police and they have not assigned an officer to the case. As such, I am at an impasse with XXXX as they have refused to work with me any further to resolve this. 



On XX/XX/XXXX, I filed a complaint with the CFPB. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a response from Bank of America stating that they require more time to investigate the fraud due to the complexity of the case. Upon receiving this response from Bank of America, the CFPB closed the complaint. As the matter is not yet resolved, I still have a balance of fraudulent charges and late fees with Bank of America, I am opening a new complaint. 


As of XX/XX/XXXX, all of my legitimate charges to the Bank of America account have been paid in full and no new charges have been made. The fraudulent charge of {$1400.00} remains in my balance and a late payment fee of {$9.00} was charged to the account on XX/XX/XXXX. My next payment is due XX/XX/XXXX. At this time, I anticipate that Bank of America will begin to charge more late fees and interest on the fraudulent amount. 


I am providing the following documents : * The email email from Bank of America informing me of the fraud. 
* The emails from XXXX. 
* The resolution letter from Bank of America. 
* The XXXX police report. 
* My travel itinerary for my trip to XXXX. 
* Bank of America 's XX/XX/XXXX response to the CFPB complaint

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