Consumer complaint received 2022-03-08
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: MA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
This is part of a letter I sent to the CEO of Bank of America dated XX/XX/XXXX, after I was scammed. It describes the events of XXXX, XXXX. 

" Briefly, in XXXX of XXXX, my wife and I were scammed out of {$1800.00} from our BOA checking account. While we knowingly transferred a total of {$1800.00}, in two transactions through XXXX, we had notified BOA that a scam was happening without understanding what the scam was, before we actually lost the total amount of money. 
Bear with me as I provide more context. 
A person had contacted my wife via text indicating that he was interested in buying several of her oil paintings. They sent her a check for {$1800.00} and asked that she send her art work in return. We deposited the check they had sent and waited until the online account had indicated that the check had cleared before using XXXX ; it indeed indicated that the check had CLEARED. 
At that point we XXXX  {$1800.00} in two transactions to XXXX XXXX. It was at this point that things were not what they seemed ; and I suspected a scam. On XX/XX/XXXX, I emailed BOAs security address ( XXXX ) and tried to explain my suspicions and concern ( copy attached ). The next day, XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from Executive Resolution ( BOA ) instructing me to contact BOA ASAP ( copy attached ). In the meantime, XXXX check ( the check had XXXXXXXX XXXX letterhead and appeared legitimate ) had bounced and our money was gone.

After two tries, I was able to reach your employee, XXXX XXXX, Operations Analyst, Executive Response Specialist. As you can see from the attached copy of Mr. XXXX email, it is fairly optimistic that BOA might be able to help. Instead, our conversation dissolved into his explaining to me what we already knew, that we had been scammed. And his remedy was, essentially, too bad ( my paraphrase ). I protested that it was never explained what cleared means, and Mr. XXXX stated that the explanation was contained in some bank rules that we agreed to. ( If we did agree to it, it was probably when the account was opened, many years prior. But the point is, it is not stated, online, that there is more than one definition of cleared. For example, cleared can happen in a couple of days, or a couple of weeks or a period much longer. This explanation came from a conversation my wife had with a BOA branch employee. ) In a subsequent phone call with BOAs security, we received no other satisfaction from BOA despite the fact that we had contacted BOAs security prior to the check bouncing asking that they watch our accounts for a potential scam. 
Although this happened last summer, we have been left to wonder what BOAs security was supposed to protect us from. We have tried to move on from this episode, admit our failing, and forget about it. Instead, we just cant let it go it is driving us mad. Had we done nothing at the time, there would have been more reason to move on. But because we actually tried to do something, contacting BOA security, makes that impossible to do. 
We would appreciate your assigning someone to look into this for us and provide us with some remediation. We would also appreciate having that person acknowledge when this assignment is received reaching out to us. 
Thanks in advance for your help. '' After I was denied any help, I sent another letter, dated XX/XX/XXXX, to a Ms. XXXX XXXX of BOA who never responded. Mr. XXXX, CEO of BOA was copied in on this letter as well.

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