Consumer complaint received 2021-07-01
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: OR
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:
Below is an account of a Scam / Fraudulent activity on a Bank of America Credit Card, which occurred on XX/XX/XXXX. 

Tuesday XX/XX/XXXX around XXXX PST, I received multiple calls from an unknown number from XXXX, CA ( XXXX ). When I picked up the phone it was a message from a group posing to be XXXX Support. They told me there was an urgent matter needing my attention. I connected with a female Info Security representative, going by the name XXXX XXXX with an XXXX accent ), who explained to me that my identity had been compromised and there were 69 hackers who were using a Tiny Banker Hack to extract money from all of my online purchases. Her recommendation was to make some online purchases ( with Apples reimbursement ) in order to catch the hackers in the act. 

Throughout the ordeal, XXXX would send me notifications from XXXX, proving that her team was reimbursing me and slowly eliminating the hackers with each purchase. The fictional XXXX support team led me on a series of purchases at a variety of locations in order to catch the hackers. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX : XXXX first asked me to download an application called XXXX XXXX, an application used to remote into my device to view whatever they have on their screen. XXXX uses a similar technique, but with another application. After helping her view my XXXX, I logged into my OnPoint Credit union account and transferred the money using the XXXX XXXX to the following individual : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. Using this information, I wired approximately {$2000.00} to the purported hacker, and they told me that they were able to catch him in the act. 

Grocery Stores : After the hackers were able to capture money from my checking account they asked if I could go to a grocery store to purchase gift cards, as the hackers were able to capture funds from debit/credit POS. I proceeded to purchase XXXX gift cards from two XXXX XXXX Stores, one XXXX, and one XXXX XXXX. The XXXX XXXX XXXX has records of these purchases under the following reference number : XXXX. 

In total, I purchased 20 gift cards from these grocery stores totaling {$10000.00} under the advice of the scam artists. Each time I purchased a card, they asked me to share the activation code and sent me a notification of more hackers being eliminated and/or caught in the act. Once the final card had been purchased, the scam artists advised that I destroy the cards to keep the hackers from tracking them. I dutifully cut the cards up and disposed of them into a variety of garbage cans near my house. 

Grocery Stores : XXXX XXXX : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, OR XXXX XXXX XXXX : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, OR XXXX XXXX : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, OR XXXX XXXX XXXX : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, OR XXXX After the final transaction, I went to discuss the events with relatives on the night of XX/XX/XXXX. I was advised to immediately make a fraud report to Bank of America. I made my report, which was recorded, at XXXX XXXX  PST on XX/XX/XXXX. The representative on the phone made the events I described to her sound very common, and something that the bank could handle easily and that I shouldnt be ashamed. I asked the associate what kind of documentation she might need ( NOTE : at the time, if she requested it, I could have gone back to the garbage cans to retrieve the cards for tracing, and I could have saved the receipts of the transactions ). 

Given that the representative from the fraud department said that nothing more was needed to submit the case, I left it to Bank of America to follow up. The very next day I called back XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX to double-check if there wasnt any documentation needed and that they would reach out to me if anything more was needed for the case. I was under the impression that this case was being processed as a fraud case, and was underway. However, one week later, I noted that the charges still sat on my credit card account. I called Bank of America to check, and the representative ( XXXX from CA ) was confused and said that the charges wouldnt be covered by the bank. I spoke to his supervisor XXXX, and XXXX ( from Tennessee ) her supervisor. Both managers agreed that the circumstances surrounding this scam werent qualified for protection, and no Fraud claims could be opened. XXXX also noted that my original case reported on XX/XX/XXXX was escalated as a TRMS case that was shared with authorities above Bank of America ( e.g. the FBI ). 

In summary, its my firm belief that Bank of America should protect these charges and reimburse my account due to their negligence and omission of detail. 

1 ) They failed to clearly express the severity of the situation and failed to explain that I would be responsible for the charges.

2 ) They failed to advise on corrective actions ( i.e. retrieve the cards from the trash, save the receipts for tracking purposes ).

The result of their omissions has made it virtually impossible for the merchants to trace the card or rescind payment from the scam artists - and as a result, I am burdened with these charges unfairly due to the whole saga being a scam.

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