Consumer complaint received 2020-03-18
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: International money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
This dispute is with Bank of America. It relates to an unconscionable contract that Bank of America forces on consumers when attempting to recover assets stolen in scams involving wire fraud. 

From XXXX to XXXX, 2020, I was the victim of a sophisticated wire fraud scam outlined here : https : XXXX As a result of this scam, two payments of XXXX USD each were wired to bank accounts operated by overseas criminals : one on XX/XX/2020, one on XX/XX/2020. The fraud was discovered on XX/XX/2020. 

I immediately alerted Bank of America, the transmitting bank for both these payments. 

Bank of America 's fraud team emailed me a 5-page unalterable contract that they required to be signed before initiating recovery efforts. This contract included the following paragraph : " In further consideration of the Recovery Effort, Customer agrees to indemnify, defend and hold Bank harmless from and against any and all claims, liabilities, demands, actions, proceedings, judgments, executions, losses, damages, expenses and costs, including reasonable attorneys fees, actual documented cost for in-house legal services, and consequential damages, of any nature whatsoever, that Bank may sustain or incur which arise out of or are in any way connected with the Recovery Effort, the Transaction and this Agreement, including, without limitation : the Transaction itself ; any action or inaction related to the Recovery Effort, any action or omission of Bank, Customer or any other person relating to the Transaction or Recovery Effort, Banks restraining, blocking access to, and/or appropriating, funds in the account of a third party ; requesting a third party ( including, without limitation, the Beneficiary Bank ) to return funds, indemnifying a third party in respect of a Bank request, regardless of whether such Recovery Effort is successful, paying or turning over any funds to Customer, and/or any disclosure of information. The obligations under this Agreement shall commence immediately and shall remain in full force and effect indefinitely. '' I am not a lawyer, and the above clause includes considerable legal jargon, however my interpretation was that Bank of America was threatening to hold me liable for unknown, unpredictable, and potentially unlimited costs associated with the recovery effort. This includes costs arising from potential actions performed by third-parties such as XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX   XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX, the two destination banks for the wire transfers. 

I asked five separate Bank of America employees whether my interpretation was correct. Each of these employees said my interpretation was crazy, that there was no way Bank of America would pass the costs for fraud recovery on to a consumer, and that the above clause in the contract must mean something else. Trusting my own command of English, I did not believe them. Finally I was transferred to a senior manager in Bank of America 's fraud division, who confirmed that, in fact, the clause means exactly what I thought it meant. 

In other words, Bank of America requires any consumer who is attempting to recover assets after being victimized by fraud to : 1. Sign a blank check to Bank of America, taking full responsibility for potentially unlimited, totally unknown costs, including legal fees. 
2. Sign a blank check for potential actions taken by overseas third-party banks that have *already* been proven untrustworthy by harboring and facilitating criminals. 

Signing this contract could easily bankrupt me. 

No fewer than five Bank of America representatives claimed it was " no big deal '' and " nothing to worry about ''. 

I discussed this contract with my legal counsel, who called it " appalling '' and " unconscionable ''. 

Bank of America refused to initiate recovery efforts unless I would sign this contract. 

Bank of America adds insult to injury by attempting to force consumers to sign an unconscionable contract that could easily bankrupt them, right after those consumers have already been victims of fraud. 

It is even worse that Bank of America tries to hide the true meaning of this contract. In fact, the meaning is so sneaky, and so insane, that most Bank of America employees, even within the fraud division, don't even know what the contract means. As a result, these employees pass false information on to consumers. 

It is even worse that Bank of America is victimizing consumers this way during a major world crisis in which XXXX XXXX, such as mine, are already being devastated.

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