Consumer complaint received 2021-10-22
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Government benefit card
Issue: Problem with a purchase or transfer
Sub-issue: Charged for a purchase or transfer you did not make with the card

Complaint:
This is a follow up to my prior complaint ID # XXXX. Bank of America has failed to properly review this claim and has failed in their fiduciary responsibilities. I would like the CFPB to please follow up on this to ensure the bank properly reviews this claim and takes responsibility for its actions and inaction. 

The claim is very simple and straightforward. On Friday, XX/XX/2021, a person or persons unknown to me were able to initiate {$5000.00} a transfer from my B of A debit card to their account at another bank. I discovered and reported the details of this fraudulent theft to B of A on Sunday, XX/XX/2021. B of A is incorrect in the attached letter where they state that I first contacted the bank on XX/XX/2021 It was Sunday, XX/XX/XXXX, and I have record of that call. I was confident then and remain confident that the bank could have stopped the transfer that day if they had acted promptly and responsibly. I am now certain they did neither. I was able to provide B of A with the routing number and last four digits of the receiving account number and recommended that they reach out to that bank and stop the transaction, asked that the receiving account be frozen, and attempt to identify the criminal that initiated the transfer. I was confident that this type of transfer took a couple of business days to complete and that my prompt reporting would allow B of A to stop the transfer before the funds were deposited into the thief 's account. It appears that B of A did nothing. The {$5000.00} transfer was completed and I sustained the loss due to B or A 's inaction. 

Two weeks later on XX/XX/2021 there was a second fraudulent transfer initiated with the exact characteristics of the XX/XX/XXXX transaction. I discovered the XX/XX/XXXX transaction on the day it was initiated and contacted both B of A and the receiving bank to alert them both of the fraudulent transfer. In the end, that transfer failed and the funds were returned to me but this does show a specific pattern of fraud that can not be ignored. In both cases the transfers were initiated shortly after relatively large credits were posted to my account. It appears that the perpetrator of the fraud had some sort of knowledge as to the transaction detail or balance information which allowed them to strategically time the fraudulent transfer attempts. 

After several months and many phone calls B of A determined that the theft from my account " did not resemble a fraudulent pattern of use '' and also suggested that someone known to me may have initiated the transfer. Both of theses findings are wrong and an example of B of A failing in their fiduciary responsibilities. As I have detailed above, there was a clear pattern of fraud developing on my account alone. In addition, a simple XXXX search will find that there has been a high volume of fraudulent activity on B of A debit cards and that the bank 's security measures are lacking. I am the victim of fraud and the bank very conveniently ignored the fact that they do have a security problem. They ignore the fact that this {$5000.00} theft was reported to them in a timely manner with all the information they needed to stop it, and they ignore the fact that they did nothing to stop the theft or identify the perpetrator. To suggest that it was a personal contact of mine that stole my money is beyond belief. The bank has even recommended that I attempt to personally contact the perpetrator, who is clearly a fairly sophisticated criminal, and attempt to recover the funds myself. I find that recommendation to be reckless, possibly putting me in danger, and could possibly inadvertently provide the criminal with only more information, enabling their scheme. So while B of A 's conclusions are false, and their recommendation of no value, even reckless, my recommendation makes clear sense and is in line with the bank 's responsibilities to both safeguard customer 's accounts and to respond to reports of theft. That recommendation from me was to promptly follow up on the reported theft using the tools available to the bank. Had they done so this case would have been closed on XX/XX/2021 and my funds would have been recovered. They have done little or nothing and I have suffered a {$5000.00} loss. 

Over the last three and half months I have spoken with bank representatives numerous times. It is noteworthy that in nearly all cases they have been sympathetic to my loss. They have not been surprised even making comments such as " yes, we've been seeing a lot of these lately '' when I described the details of the fraudulent transfer. On XX/XX/2021 I was told by a B of A representative that my case had initially been incorrectly coded or classified and she was correcting it at that time. After changing my email, password, and security question she then told me that the transaction was now properly classified and that the lost {$5000.00} would be returned to my account soon. That never happened. 

In then end I am certain of these facts. {$5000.00} was stolen from my account and I reported it to the bank very promptly. I do not know who did it and have never disclosed my account, password, or pin to another person. If it appears to be initiated by someone with my information then it is a very clever scheme and I would be happy to work with B of A to determine how it was accomplished. In any case, it is still theft regardless of how it looks to the bank. A theft that could have been stopped by B of A.

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