Consumer complaint received 2021-08-22
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: GA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
The evening of Friday, XX/XX/2021, I began receiving text message alerts for charges that were declined by Bank of America. The texts asked me to confirm if I recognized the charges listed. I responded, " no ''. I received a text stating a Bank of America representative would be contacting me in 2-3 minutes ( by phone ). A call came by a man who stated he was a 'Bank of America Fraud Protections Representative '. He began asking me ''identifying questions '. I was unsure. So I asked him to hold on. I called the number he called me from. The telephone number answered, " You have reached Bank of America Fraud Protections Department ''. So I was assured I was talking to a Bank of America representative. This began the process of him scamming me out of {$3500.00}. 

Following his instructions, I logged into my account. He asked me for my password. I told him, " Bank of America would never ask me for that ''. At that point he replied, " we are going to delete your mobile app after this process, so it won't matter. " I logged into my account. I followed his instructions by adding myself as a recipient to XXXX, from my own account. with my telephone number. This was, according to the fake representative, to reverse the process of a pending transfer the 'con ' had set up. He then told me to transfer {$3500.00} to _________ ( the name listed on my debit card ). Because it was attached to MY telephone number, the " Bank of America representative '' said this would stop the process of the " pending '' fraudulent transfer. However, after the transferred was completed, my checking account was in the negative {$3400.00}. I then informed this " representative '' my account was in the negative. He told me my account may reflect a negative balance for a couple of hours while Bank of America completed the process of reversing the attempted fraudulent activity. The fraudulent representative then instructed me to login to a site called ID Me. Per his instructions, I uploaded my driver 's license, gave him my social security number and the app scanned my face. 
After hanging up the phone, I immediately had this 'sick feeling '. So I called the number he called from. It answered, " You have reach Bank of America 's Fraud Protection Department. Our office is now closed ''. I immediately contacted Bank of America through their customer service 1 800 number. It took OVER AN HOUR to reach someone from Bank of America. When I finally did, It was confirmed I had been scammed. I was transferred to their XXXX department. The representative informed me, even though I was following the instructions of a " Bank of America Rep. '', because I transferred the money, the Bank of America Fraud Protection would not cover this transaction. She also informed me that BANK OF AMERICA IS AWARE OF THESE TYPES OF SCAMS, it would take UP TO 10 BUSINESS to investigate this, and NO TEMPORARY CREDIT WOULD BR GRANTED TO THIS ACCOUNT because it is considered a transfer I completed myself. I asked, as a consumer and customer of Bank of America, why I wasn't informed or alerted of potentially being scammed like this. How would this person know I am a Bank of America customer? Why am I not protected from receiving alerts from people posing as Bank of America Fraud Protections? These alerts look EXACTLY like official Bank of America alerts. I was not protected. I have been a Bank of America customer for over 18 years.

I immediately called the police. I have to wait until Monday, XX/XX/2021, to file the report, because they are closed over the weekend. I believe the scam artists know this. I froze all three of my credit reports. The next day ( Saturday, XX/XX/2021 ) I got a new driver 's license. This con artist has a copy of my driver 's license, my face was scanned and he has my social security number. 

These are the numbers they texted and called from : Texts : ( XXXX ) XXXX XXXX XXXX Alert texed from : XXXX XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX texted from : XXXX Called from : ( XXXX ) XXXX Thank you for your assistance. 

Sincerely

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