Consumer complaint received 2023-03-05
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
It was a scam. I want to share my story. I hope it will help someone else. I am a XXXX yr old wife with a XXXX. My husband has XXXX. That leaves me to do everything. I don't mind and I always thought I could handle everything. I have been for the last 25 years. Guess what I was wrong. When my husband has a bad day I sometimes deal with it by having XXXX XXXX, which involve a lot of crying. This is what happened on XX/XX/2022. I was out doing errands and had called a best friend who sometimes could calm me down. Apparently, it didn't work. 
I put the card in the slot on the outside pump has normal and filled up my car. Within about 4 minutes of driving off towards home, I received a text message from Bank of America that asked if I had made 3 charges. One of the charges was for {$3400.00} to XXXX. Less than 5 minutes later I received a phone call from a person stating he was from the Bank of America fraud department. I normally won't answer the phone If I don't know the number but my brain was not in a normal state. It was in stupld. So I am sitting in my car in my drive way and while I am speaking with him I open my Bof A account and I do see that one of the charges was on account and credited back. Also, XXXX had asked me if I had just put gas in and paid at the pump. I said yes. He then said you should not pay at the pump that is how someone can get your information. Remember I am in XXXX XXXX  MODE. He then proceeded to give me the last 4 digits of the card I used. XXXX then gave me the last 4 digits of my savings account and checking account. How else would he have this information if he wasn't from Bank of America. Again XXXX XXXX MODE. XXXX said that I would have to follow his instructions to have my money transferred back into my account from XXXX. I believed him and gave him the code from XXXX. This now turned my case from fraud into a scam. 
About 5 minutes later I looked at my account and realized what I had done. I immediately called the Bank of America fraud department. I don't know how the person understood me. I was crying so bad but I just lost all of my money. The person was really nice filed the 2 claims for me and assured me Bank of America would help me. She gave me a number to call on Friday to ask if I could get a temporary credit. She did not freeze my accounts. 
On Friday morning I called the number and the person did not know why I was told to call. She then said I had to take copies and go into Bank of America and have them fax it to the Digital Claims Resolution 's Department. I asked hemr what the chances were of me getting my money back. I was told good, My husband and I went to the bank. I told them my story. We were there for four hours in which time my account was finally put on hold. After I asked for it to be cancelled. In the meantime I looked up on my app and realized that the transfer date of the money was XX/XX/2022. If my account had been put on hold immediately, would I still have my money? 
While I was at the bank on Friday, I learned that even if you do something from the Bank of America app it does not mean it is FDIC protected. My case is not protected so I did not get temporary credit and even though they will have an investigator look at it, I WILL NOT GET MY MONEY BACK.

The effect this has on my husband and myself is that not only do we not have money until our next social security check comes in XXXX but the way it affects someone with XXXX they go into a deep sleep and he slept for the next 17 hours.

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