Consumer complaint received 2022-03-04
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Government benefit card
Issue: Advertising
Sub-issue: Changes in terms from what was offered or advertised

Complaint:
I am a prepaid customer of Bank of America. My account was set up in XXXX via XXXX. {$12000.00} was stolen from my account by Bank Of America XXXX XXXX / XX/XX/XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, {$3000.00} was lost by Bank Of America after they arbitrarily froze my account following my report of the money stolen.. For a total of {$15000.00}. I contacted them once I realized they were stealing money from my account ; as they were from thousands of other accounts of this type. I first contacted them in XX/XX/XXXX. The contract states a XXXX liability policy for unauthorized charges. Upon my report that my funds were stolen from my account, they immediately froze my account and block my access both online and offline. After 2 months and more than XXXX calls to Bank Of America to unfreeze my account and return my money, I contacted a law firm that had begun putting together a class action lawsuit for this behavior by them, and my name and experience was added to the suit along with the other class members. The result was an injunction by the court in approx XX/XX/XXXX for BofA to cease freezing accounts and to set up a dedicated number and department that would process and pay the claims that have been arbitrarily denied by their previous automated system. ( Which is against XXXX XXXX ). Finally, and after several communications with the XXXX informing me of the lies BofA was telling all the customers in the same situation as me : XXXX froze your account and took your money. ( This was not true at all. XXXX set up a department dedicated to helping claimants get their account unfrozen and their money returned to them by BofA ), instead of my money being returned to me following the court ordered injunction, I continued to receive automated denial after denial for almost 1 year. And in between each denial, agent after agent assured me via phone that my money was on the way to me and that I would not have to worry anymore. My money never came. BofA was also forcing everyone they had froze accounts of after they reported the missing money to BofA, to contact XXXX and force XXXX to RE-verify our identities. This of course was just apart of their scheme to wear us down, and wear us out. I of course went through the process of re-verifying my identity with the XXXX because I wanted BofA to have nothing to point fingers at as their reason for failing to return my money. Over the course of XXXX, many agents have yelled at me, threatened me, and hung up on me. Also, XXXX emotionally fed-up agent came clean with me and told me Bank of XXXX entire scheme which I wrote down word for word. In just a few of her words Im sickened by what theyve been doing to every single XXXX customer theyve taken money from. They want us to blame the customer for the fraud Bank of America is doing. They want us to tell you guys that some bad people must have saw you enter your pin code at the grocery store or atm, and that its your fault because you didnt cover the keypad. And if you guys keep persisting with the claim, that its because you took your own money and youre making a false claim to get it back. And that people who make EDD claims are criminals. This is exactly what she said to me and much more. She told me step by step how Bank Of America was pulling off their defrauding of thousands of XXXX customers. This woman was apart of the XXXX XXXX team BofA hired in the early part of their scheme. I have since contacted the XXXX offices with pages and pages of documentation THEY provided me with, along with formally written demands to return my money and unfreeze my account, proving conclusively they, pursuant to Regulation XXXX, XXXX XXXX Liability Policy, BofA contract with XXXX, XXXX contract with me, BofA contract with me, and the many verbal contracts made during recorded calls which I have copies of where the agent was very specific in promising me my money would be returned to me. ( Under XXXX XXXX = Principal ). As of now, there is a block on my account because I expressed I had a copy of the same recording they do of the claims supervisor agent who promised me in approx XX/XX/XXXX that my money would absolutely be returned to me. I want the block removed from my account, I want my {$12000.00} claim paid, and I want my {$3000.00} BofA lost due to their arbitrary freezing of my account, tracked down ( as promised by BofA ) and returned to me.

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